Monday, November 19, 2018

Nightmares

Via.

A couple of truly bizarre misinterpretations in Mark Landler's New York Times account of the emperor's views on the murder of Jamal Kashoggi—first,
Mr. Trump, who had once condemned the Saudi leaders for perpetrating “the worst cover-up in history,” praised Saudi Arabia this weekend as a “truly spectacular ally,” even after the C.I.A. concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader, ordered the murder.
"Condemned" is a very peculiar descriptor for Trump's initial remarks on the killing, and especially the cover-up—

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Mr Trump said: "They had a very bad original concept, it was carried out poorly and the cover-up was the worst in the history of cover-ups.
"Whoever thought of that idea, I think is in big trouble. And they should be in big trouble."
What Trump said was less a moral judgment than a review, lousy concept and lousy execution (you should pardon the expression), and the only thing wrong with the cover-up was that it didn't work. Just because they murder a journalist who criticized them doesn't mean you shouldn't be friends, for heaven's sake, but he can't help saying it was lousy TV, because Trump's aesthetic response is really important. So there's no interesting contradiction, in his mind, between those remarks and his protestations of friendship today.

And then
He also showed little interest in one of the vital pieces of evidence in the case: an audio recording of Mr. Khashoggi’s death last month in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, which the Turkish government shared with the C.I.A. Mr. Trump said there was no reason for him to listen to the recording because “it’s a suffering tape, it’s a terrible tape.”...[which] showed how stubbornly Mr. Trump has decided to stick with his ally. He does not even want to listen to evidence that could shake his confidence, even if it creates rifts with intelligence officials. 
That's not why he doesn't want to listen to the tape. He's being completely honest about that.  He doesn't have the same view of evidence that you and I have, you can show him all the evidence in the world without changing his mind if he thinks changing his mind would be impolitic.

He doesn't want to listen to the tape because he's afraid it will upset him. Exactly the way he won't visit war zones and avoids contact with the bereaved and messes up so badly in the disaster responses: because he's frightened, physically and emotionally. He's afraid he might get hurt if he's near a war. He was afraid the Prince of Wales might yell at him when he went to England. He's afraid he might hear the sound of somebody being murdered on that tape and he might get nightmares. And that would be terrible.

Also from the Times, this idiocy:

Really, this is embarrassing.
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