Trump’s threats, the autopen and the Congo
Is it just me thinking that the major predators on the world scene are all leaders of failed economies? Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are belligerent bullies rattling their swords.
Trump just threatened Iran over the attacks on American ships and planes by the Houthis. Trump tweeted on Truth Social “Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!”
Trump loves exclamation points and CAPS! But isn’t it a bit incongruous that he tweets on “Truth” Social? Shouldn’t he go back to Twitter now that his bud Elon Musk owns it?
The democrats love to say that Trump is a Russian agent. The Hill says “the former head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence service, Alnur Mussayev claims that Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987, when the 40-year-old real-estate mogul first visited Moscow.” Other KGB operatives have said the same fueling democrat claims. All of the left leaning media sites gleefully report the claims yet to be substantiated.
What does Bernie Sanders say? Shouldn’t he and all those on the far left be overjoyed with Trump’s relationship with Putin? Didn’t Bernie honeymoon in Russia? Sanders was reported to have said on that trip “Our housing in general is better than yours, but people are paying 40 percent of their income for housing. The quality of your housing is not good, but we appreciate the fact that people are paying 5 percent.” That has to be one of the all time dumbest statements ever. That reminds me of the comment made by a Canadian to me when I was on a bear hunt. He criticized US healthcare and said that while Canadian healthcare was worse at least he did not have to pay very much for it.
Whatever the truth, I don’t think that there is any doubt that Trump likes Putin. He has treated him with kid gloves. In the talks about the war in Ukraine, Trump has been harder on Zelenskyy than on Putin. When Putin did not agree to the cease fire terms, Trump did not threaten him like he did Zelenskyy. Anyone else he would have immediately imposed more sanctions and a 100 percent tariff – or 200% as on French wines.
Speaking of which, who hasn’t – other than Putin – Trump threatened?
I still don’t understand why Zelenskyy did not offer to pay for US military aid to keep the weapons and intelligence flowing.
Trump is saying that the pardons granted by Biden are invalid because of the possibility that they were signed with the autopen. This would have to be decided by the courts. However, if the courts rule that use of the autopen is invalid then many of not most of the laws and other things signed by presidents since Geroge Bush the First will be invalid. Presidents have so many documents to sign that the autopen is often used. And yes, I know the issue is whether Biden knew what was being signed. But there is zero chance that any action taken by Biden during his time in office will be thrown out due to senility.
Remember when Trump referred Haiti, El Salvador and other countries as s-hole countries? Well it is true for Congo where 10 percent of my DNA is from. The Congolese have always gotten the short end of the stick. From the brutal oppression of the Belgium where millions died to having to dig cobalt for our cell phones and EV batteries to the mystery disease that is now killing scores of people, half of whom die within 48 hours of showing symptoms. The disease causes uncontrolled bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms of hemorrhagic fever. The World Health Organization says that this may be a new disease from a previously undiscovered virus. I wonder if any of the USAID frozen funds were to go to Congo? Meanwhile, Rwandan-backed rebels are seizing control of Congo’s eastern cities and are one of over 100 armed groups vying for control of the mineral rich east whose mineral deposits are valued at over $24 trillion. The new disease only adds to the misery of the Congolese. Last December, the country said a flulike disease linked to malaria sickened more than 400 people and killed at least 31. Congo is also battling an outbreak of Mpox with more than 55,000 cases and 1,200 deaths since the beginning of last year. Also a couple of years ago Congo experienced the world’s second-deadliest Ebola outbreak, which infected more than 3,400 people and killed 2,280.
Can you imagine sitting on top of $24 trillion in mineral wealth and still be among the poorest countries in the world?
Congo has over 5 million people living with HIV and has been called the rape capital of the world.
Again, my Congolese ancestors who were shackled, put on slave ships, survived the harrowing eastern passage and were enslaved in America were better off than their “free” bothers and sisters who remained in Congo. Today’s Congolese are only marginally better off. They face disease, semi-slave conditions mining cobalt, civil war and a subsistence lifestyle. To make matters even worse, the government has stopped the export of cobalt for four months citing an oversupply causing prices to fall. This hits the 200,000 small artisanal miners many of whom are children especially hard whose mining is their sole source of income. Please shed a tear for Congo.
haroldblackphd.com 