Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/13/bumbling-cryptofascist.html
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Bolton, who was chairman of the Gatestone Institute, which uses its resources to promote the Alternative for Germany party.
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Somehow I don’t think Traitor Trump’s Nazi-whisperer ambassador is an accident. Trump’s goals are aligned with Russia’s goals: disrupt European politics, destroy NATO.
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Well I am surprised… surprised Trump didn’t install someone with genuine bona fides, someone with actual domain-specific knowledge about the extreme right and the resurgence of fascism in Europe.
It’s not as though David Duke has that much on his plate right now.
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Well played. Horrific, but well played.
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The primary qualification for all his picks tends to be ineptitude. The ones who seem to have a grasp of the gravity of the position are quickly dispatched.
Edited to correct te spellings.
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I think there’s a corollary to the Peter Priniciple at work there; first rise to (or in Trump’s case, rise way above) the level of your incompetence, then backfill the positions around you with people whose incompetence dwarfs your own, thereby improving the appearance of your own performance.
It’s happening on a purely instinctive level though, since Trump has the self awareness of a sea slug lamprey and appears to be genuinely ignorant of his failings.
And everything else, actually.
Edited To Ask: Am I unfairly maligning sea slugs here? Resolved! See above and below.
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As a German, I followed Grenell’s twitter account, to learn what he’s about.
I was expecting a twitter account full of nice fluff and the occasional announcements of what he’s doing.
Maybe some US gov / Trump retweets.
Instead I saw him publicly critizising Germany (both industry & politics)
I think he doesn’t understand how Germans feel about diplomacy and Germany views on face saving. If you want to influence Germans, you make your arguments known privately and then wait, without applying pressure. Then you wait some more, being visible, but not repeating your arguments (because we heard them the first time), If your arguments convinced, you will notice. If they don’t, after waiting patiently, try again, with better arguments.
If instead you push publicly, then there’s no face saving way to accept your position, even if Germans would consider it otherwise.
Also, anything you promise a German, you’d better deliver. If you say, you have contacts in Washington that can help, those contacts should exist and be helpful. If there’s something you would like to be able to do, but are not sure you can pull off, you’d better not promise.
Grenell will probably not notice this, because unless forced, Germans will not push back,
but instead ignore and do nothing or complain privately behind your back. And this is, what’s happening now.
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Axis of Good
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Any amount of competence is seen as a negative in Trumplethinskin’s orbit. He himself is the acknowledged expert on everything, so if someone seems to know more than him, they get the axe, and quick.
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The title of this thread seems to imply that appointing this particular asshat was an error. I assume that was intended as sarcasm?
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An undiplomatic diplomat. And a friend to right-wing populists. Just what you’d expect.
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What is more alarming is that there are close ties between the AfD and Russia which publicly supports the AfD and provides them a spot on its propaganda channel called Russia Today in the German language. AfD politicians are frequently as experts or commentators on Russia Today.
There is a bit of a quarrel between AfD and Grenell over the new gas pipeline from Russia, though. AfD supports it (it is in the Russian interest), but Grenell wrote many German companies that the US will sanction them if they support the project. Those letters are very ill received in the German media as would be expected.
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Yes. Sea slugs serve a purpose in a given ecology and are the result of natural selection…
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Can someone in Germany run a sting and get him to publish Swastikas or something so he can be declared persona non grata? I feel like he’s probably stupid enough to fall for it.
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Yes. Nudibranchs are beautiful creatures with (as @Mangochin points out) important roles in the marine ecology. Maybe you mean sea cucumbers, which resemble turds and evert their stomachs when threatened? But sea cucumbers still play an important role in their environment, so probably still unfair.
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FYI- you’re not going to get listeriosis from not washing your hands after taking a shit. Listeri monocytogenes is an environmental pathogen and not spread through the fecal-oral route like vibrio, shigella, E. coli, or salmonella.
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