Over the years, I have seen several US officials address the UN in times of crisis.  Adlai Stevenson was brilliant during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  There have been some black marks too, such as the time the Republican Reich duped Colin Powell into presenting lies to the General Assembly to justify attacking Iraq.  But even then, Powell’s presentation was skillful and convincing.   But yesterday, Donald Trump, could not have embarrassed our nation more, if he had tried to sell MAGA hats to the other diplomats.

In his first address before the United Nations, an organization dedicated to maintaining global peace, Donald Trump delivered a warlike speech threatening to annihilate North Korea, criticizing Iran’s “pursuit of death and destruction,” belittling his enemies, and, naturally, bragging about his election victory. It was, in other words, par for the Trump course, if set jarringly against the backdrop of international cooperation.

“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,” the president said Tuesday, reading haltingly from a teleprompter as representatives for the world’s governments, as well as Rex Tillerson and Nikki Haley, looked solemnly on. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime,” he added, deploying a Trumpian insult he had first debuted on Twitter days before. “The United States is ready, willing, and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary. That’s what the United Nations is all about. That’s what the United Nations is for. Let’s see how they do.”…

…While every permanent member of the United Nations Security Council has affirmed the nuclear framework to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions, Trump on Tuesday unilaterally lashed out at the agreement, which was signed by his predecessor, as “an embarrassment.” Iran, he declared, is “another reckless regime, one that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing death to America, destruction to Israel and ruin for many leaders and nations in this room.” Calling the Iranian government a “corrupt dictatorship” and accusing it of financing terrorism, he denounced the landmark nuclear accord as “of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”

If Trump’s bombastic rhetoric was meant to puff him up on the world stage, his characteristic insistence on enumerating his self-proclaimed accomplishments left him looking small. “The United States has done very well since Election Day last November 8,” Trump said, taking credit for the economic growth and stock market rally that has continued under his administration. “Unemployment is its lowest level in 16 year. And because of our regulatory and other reforms, we have more people working in the United States today than ever before. Companies are moving back, creating job growth the likes of which our country has not seen in a very long time, and it has just been announced that we will be spending almost 700 billion dollars on our military and defense. Our military will soon be the strongest it has ever been.”

Inserted from <Vanity Fair>
Photo credit: trofire.com

Lawrence O’Donnell called Trump’s UN Speech the worst and most dangerous in US history.  Since MSNBC had been giving some of you trouble, here’s the clip on YouTube.

I think Trump would love to murder 25 million people, because it would give him an excuse to feel powerful.

Consider this.  By viciously repudiating the Iran deal, Trump is telling North Korea that, if they make a deal with the US to give up their nuclear weapons program, they will not be able to trust the US to keep it.  That makes conflict much more likely.

Finally, this is Netanyahu’s opinion:

PM Netanyahu on @POTUS Trump’s speech at #UNGA: In over 30 years in my experience w/ the UN I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech

— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 19, 2017

If Butcher Bibi loves it, it has to be deplorable!

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!

It could not be happening to a sleazier sphincter.  Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller has  Trump co-conspirator Paul Manafart by the genitals like a starvation-crazed pit-bull, and I could not be more pleased.  I expected Mueller do do this, but I did not expect it so quickly or with such vigor and tenacity.

Two stories that popped overnight suggest that special counsel Robert Mueller is aggressively pursuing Paul Manafort, the former chairman of President Trump’s campaign.

— CNN reports that “U.S. investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election”: “The government snooping continued into early this year, including a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Donald Trump. Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation …

“A secret order authorized by the court that handles the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) began after Manafort became the subject of an FBI investigation that began in 2014,” per Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz and Pamela Brown. “It centered on work done by a group of Washington consulting firms for Ukraine’s former ruling party … The surveillance was discontinued at some point last year for lack of evidence … The FBI then restarted the surveillance after obtaining a new FISA warrant that extended at least into early this year. … Sources say the second warrant was part of the FBI’s efforts to investigate ties between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives. Such warrants require the approval of top Justice Department and FBI officials, and the FBI must provide the court with information showing suspicion that the subject of the warrant may be acting as an agent of a foreign power.”…

— The New York Times reports on its front page this morning that, after agents raided his home with a no-knock search warrant this summer, Mueller’s prosecutors told Manafort that they planned to indict him. The story says the feds decided to pick the lock on Manafort’s front door in Alexandria, Va., because they feared he might try to destroy evidence: “They took binders stuffed with documents and copied his computer files, looking for evidence that Mr. Manafort … set up secret offshore bank accounts. They even photographed the expensive suits in his closet.”… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Rachel Maddow spent over 21 minutes sorting these out.

I have no doubt that Manafart knows where to find hundreds dump trucks full of dirt on the Fuhrer and on scores of his cronies.  He can either flip and tell all, or else two things will happen.  Pit-bull Mueller will turn him into a soprano, and he’ll be going away for a long, long time.  The Fuhrer won’t pardon him, because then he’d have to tell all.

So we’ll see what Manafart does.  Which Republican course will he take?  Is he a greater coward or a greater fool?

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!