Trump is a laughing stock. But if we weren't laughing, we'd be crying

[babylonsister]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/25/trump-laughingstock-un-general-assembly

Trump is a laughing stock. But if we weren't laughing, we'd be crying
Michael H Fuchs
At the UN general assembly, world leaders laughed at the US president after he bragged about his own performance. Perhaps they needed comic relief
Tue 25 Sep 2018 16.47 EDT
Last modified on Wed 26 Sep 2018 06.37 EDT


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Unfortunately, the consequences of the policies embedded within Trump’s speech are no joke. They can inflict lasting damage.

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The list of Trump’s foreign policies and the ways they can wreak havoc can go on and on. Trump didn’t even once mention climate change – which his administration refuses to believe even exists – the greatest existential threat facing the world today.

Perhaps most telling was the list of countries that Trump highlighted at the end of his speech as those embodying the “dreams” of the kind of nations our children will inherit. Trump praised Saudi Arabia, a brutally repressive dictatorship where women have few rights, and which is fighting a war in Yemen that is creating a humanitarian catastrophe. He praised Poland, a Nato ally where democratic institutions are under assault from its own government. And he praised Israel, a US ally that runs a military occupation of the Palestinian people in the West Bank. If these countries are Trump’s idea of the future we want to leave for our children, Trump’s vision of the world he wants to build is quite dark.

Perhaps the laughter in the room during Trump’s speech was a tinged with a sense of anxiety and dread. Perhaps it was the response that comes from those who recognize they are listening to a reckless, dangerous vision from the leader of the world’s most powerful country. And all one can do is muster is a despondent chuckle.