AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
Listen To You Tell Me Texas Friday 9/22/17
Download
To MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, President Trump’s speech to the UN General Assembly this week “lowered the bar for human decency.” ABC’s Terry Moran said that Trump’s vow to “totally destroy” North Korea if it ever attacks the United States amounts to threatening a “war crime.”
Indeed, the president’s speech to the UN is being roundly criticized by the Left and the establishment media. But in the heartland of the American continent – to the people who put Donald Trump in office – the speech was a ray of clear, bright, beautiful sunshine. It was perhaps his best speech so far.
No president in recent memory has spoken to the world in such plain and unmistakable language. The speech was a resonating defense of Trump’s ‘America First’ policy that he has been advancing since the first days of his campaign. Said the president,
The United States will forever be a great friend to the world, and especially to its allies. But we can no longer be taken advantage of, or enter into a one-sided deal where the United States gets nothing in return. As long as I hold this office, I will defend America’s interests above all else.”
When did you last hear a U.S. president say anything remotely like that? Certainly you did not during the Obama years. In the eight years of the Obama presidency, the rhetoric was all about the need for the United States to atone for its many transgressions. Nothing that Obama did on the world stage ever put the United States first.
RELATED: What an American president is supposed to sound like.
Decades of dissembling and procrastination have presented the United States and the world with a huge problem in the form of North Korea. On that highly fraught topic, the president spoke with muzzle velocity.
The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”
It was this passage that gave ABC’s Terry Moran the vapors. As we noted above, he likened it to threatening to commit a war crime.
Moran’s pearl clutching notwithstanding, given the fact that decades of observing the traditional diplomatic niceties with North Korea have yielded nothing save for a growing threat of nuclear attack or blackmail, what would Mr. Moran prefer that the president say? The perception by North Korea born of the gentlemanliness that Mr. Moran would no doubt prefer from someone like Barack Obama is precisely what has delivered the United States and the world to this dangerous pass.
Tough talk, on the other hand, appears to be working. On Thursday, two days after the speech, China’s central bank ordered the country’s banks to honor UN sanctions against North Korea and to halt business with the Kim regime. To my cynical eye, the timing seems to be much more than mere coincidence.
Throughout the 50-minute speech, the president sounded a clear, consistent theme and used one particular word triplet multiple times.
“Sovereignty, security, prosperity,” he said.
It’s about time somebody did.
Agreed, all words from President Trump that needed to be said. I don’t think any America, including President Trump, blames the North Korea people for their moronic leadership. Nor do I don’t think he intended to suggest that he would seek to destroy the much abused people of North Korea. They are as much victims of their leadership as are we Americans are often victimized by our own politicians. Rather, I think Mr. Trump is thinking in terms of obliterating North Korea’s military, something we could do if it came to that. The left is getting more and more comfortable with the idea of a nuclear-armed North Korea. The rest of us are not.
RE “When did you last hear a U.S. president say anything remotely like that?”
Last year actually. One of the cable news channels spliced back-N-forth with Obama’s UN speech; and — like the Michelle/Melania convention speeches montage — some of the text was dang-near verbatim. Google ’em.
Where Trump-went-Trump was:
a) The off-Promoter stuff (“Believe me”) that seemed to exasperate Gen. Kelly; and
b) “Rocket Man” taunts; and, yes, threat to nuke 25 million people, proffered in the planet’s iconic peace forum.
Trump joins a UN spectacle cavalcade including bellicose Kruschev, Castro (FOUR hours unscripted), and Arafat (who spoke with a handgun holstered on his hip).
Trump — who relishes unpredictability (often masking uncertainty) — COULD HAVE blown everyone’s mind, and backed Kim into an indefensible corner if, instead, he did-the-opposite…and seized his Nixon-goes-to-China moment: “Kim: Meet me in Geneva.”
Firstly, no negotiation can take place with the North Korean* communist totalitarian regime when every peaceful overture made by our country, The United States of America, to negotiate in good faith has been repulsed by the brutal DPRK* regime.
President Trump’s predecessors have achieved nothing as appeasement has never worked, but rather lends itself to miscalculation taken to mean weakness and lack of resolve. As during the 1930s, BEFORE WWII, Nazis Germany was allowed to metastasize like a cancer, bringing forth the terrible events to come, because no one said NO to them.
Well, President Trump, has told the world community of nations, most of whom agree with him, that the word to North Korea is NO! We and our allies will NOT allow you to threaten millions of American citizens and our allies with death and destruction. The DPRK is a bully and has killed countless millions of its own people.
The word of President Trump to act, if necessary, has been given, but it is not against the citizens of North Korea, but rather is specifically and justifiably leveled squarely against the perverted DPRK* rogue regime which threatens all who cherish peace and ending the spread of nuclear weapons by a nation* with no conscience of humanity.
His comments on Nambia were particularly strong. Why can’t I find it on a map?
To claim that “Trump joins a UN spectacle cavalcade including” a collection of ruthless murderous dictators is exquisite proof that Liberalism is a religious-like disease of pretzel logic twisted around a superiority complex founded on elitism with a foundation of ignorance and outright stupidity: who can know it!
Paul, It is amusing to read replies to your essay in banal regurgitation of the Liberal talking points. Gen. Kelly was a major player in the content of the speech, and was not surprised nor exasperated when it was delivered to the U.N. If one wants to use a gesture out of context as evidence of a preconceived notion, it is not only amusing, but very dishonest. It seems to me that his speech reflected what the majority of patriotic Americans feel in their hearts; even if it was not wrapped in the trappings of a true politician. One of the main reasons that we have a President Trump instead of a President Clinton is the fact that he is not a politician; thank goodness, as the inept policies of both parties’ POLITICIANS have led to these crises in N. Korea and Iran. At least the Trump haters will have to admit that he earned his wealth in the private sector, not on the backs of the American taxpayer. In my humble opinion, I think that most of the hate for President Trump is based on the extreme fear that he will succeed, and big government policies will be recognized for the destructive effects that they have perpetrated on the American family and economy.
It is too bad there is not a vaccine to be given for the disease of liberalism for it has reached epidemic status in this country. By the Grace of God we were not saddled with hillary clinton in the Whitehouse. In typical liberal fashion she blames everyone but herself for her failures, which if anyone would care to research psychopathy, you would find the full description of liberalism as well. Unfortunately, there is no cure for it. But we were given a chance to diminish the effects of liberalism by the election of a man who is trying his damnest to improve our lot. A nation can not survive without a strong and vibrant military. President Trump is correct in his words to North Korea. They are not idle words as those of his predecessor who was forever moving the line in the sand. President Trump is trying to restore what years and years of liberal policies have taken away from us…our strength and our dignity!
Kelly reaction “out of context?”
https://www.google.com/amp/www.latimes.com/politics/la-fg-trump-northkorea-20170922-story,amp.html
A Los Angeles Times citation as proof of Gen. Kelly’s exasperation? O.K., I must admit that an editorial from such an unbiased publication is a strong argument. Even though Gen. Kelly has debunked, I am now convinced he was truly exasperated. Besides what could Gen. Kelly possibly know about the context of his gesture? It takes the opinion of a La La Land reporter to convince me!
This is an updated comment to further expose the Liberal agenda beyond my comment on 9/21/2017.
The problem with Liberals is that they have abandoned their natural-born common sense and have transplanted into their brains the Swiss cheese propaganda spewed by the fake, biased, lying, elite, self-appointed “mainstream” leftist media (LA Times, NY Times, NBC, CBS, ABC, et al.) bent on the destruction of all Constitutional American values in favor of a totalitarian dogma (peaceful coexistence, HA!) favorable to the despots (both foreign and domestic) that want to enslave every part of the world where freedom is dying or dead. This sick propaganda is omnipresent on every media outlet of all types every day and every hour. It is “brain washing” us by its constant drum beat of lies and half-truths. I can’t listen to the radio news “on the hour” anymore without getting angry at the distortions and half-truths. God help the next generation of Americans as our history is being erased right before our very eyes, all in the name of left-wing “tolerance” (HA! again).
Evil must be identified and ultimately defeated if our way of life is to survive in a wicked world where Government is god and the individual is a servant thereof. The brilliance of the Constitution and the Founding Fathers was the exaltation of the sovereignty (freedom) of the individual over the unscriptural sovereignty of the King (despotic government by another name).
In 1964, Ronald Reagan said, “The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”
Well said L. Miles! There was a nugget in the middle of your comment that needs follow up: the ABC news updates are just an extension of the Liberal opining of the network. I assume that there are contractual obligations; otherwise, the updates would be more balanced and compatible with the majority of the audience.
Liberalism is like a political “gate-way” drug that ultimately leads its victims into harder Leftist “drugs” like Socialism, Black Lives Matter, Anti-fascist (so-called), ISIS, Taliban, Communism, Fascism, Nazism, etc., all of which uses the sword of Hatred as the logical weapon to create their totalitarian utopia. In this country, they all carry the hate infested goal: the destruction of America and the freedoms we enjoy because WE have stolen prosperity and resources from the rest of the world.
This is to justify their elimination of our Culture that has been the Beacon of individual Freedom and Free Enterprise for over 200 years, a miraculous benefit to mankind. They will never stop this “war” until this Beacon is conquered and replaced with an omnipotent, ruthless regime that promotes and exploits every envy, hatred, and revenge that resides in the heart of man while pretending to bring about equality, social justice, peace and prosperity to all. There can be no other logical conclusion to this subversive movement in our country as it sympathizes with the most ruthless rulers/countries on earth. The evidence becomes more visible in our “vaunted” institutions every day after 80 years of Liberal influence and corruption. Need I mention the last 8 years and the unrest and violence it has promoted here and around the world?