Donald vs The World

Too much is happening too fast these days to cover it all in these pages, but occasionally some aspect of the unfolding horror story that is the 47th US Presidency lends itself to something longer than a quip on LinkedIn - like the Oval Office Orangutan hosting a delegation from Japan...

Trump likes to complain that Britain, France, Germany and now Japan don't 'pay their way' in the defence of alleged democratic freedom. But Dementia Don forgets why the US insisted on taking the lead as 'defender of the free world' after world war two: there are plenty of misty-eyed, nostalgic nationalists in those countries who still pine for the days of imperial glory, only too eager to grasp any old excuse to tool up and try to recover lost territory. 

This was brought home yesterday in a bizarre scene during which the Japanese Prime Minister had to politely explain to a US President that the constitution which the US drafted for Japan after world war two prohibits her from ordering Japan's navy into combat - even if that would help the Tangerine Toddler keep the Strait of Hormuz open, a feat that his demented mind believes to be "a simple military maneuver [sic] that is the single reason for the high oil prices" - the other 'single reason' being his and Netanyahoo's very own Iran War. Of course, there are also oil sanctions, but the Orange One has decided to relax those for both Russia and Iran in a bid to free up some extra supplies and keep the price somewhere near $72 a barrel ($109 as I write). That's right, he's easing sanctions on the same oil fields that he and the Crazy Israeli are busy bombing, as well as providing both regimes with the cash they need to sustain their own military objectives. 

There are no analogies for this state of affairs because nobody has ever done anything this insane in all of human history. Satire is dead and my irony metre has exploded.

But wait, there's more... 

When asked by a "beautiful" Japanese journalist why he didn't warn Japan and other allies about US attacks on Iran, the Mango Mussolini responded by asking him "Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbour?" 

I'll give you a moment to let that sink in...

Even with that appalling reference as context, a US President pleading with the Japanese to unleash their navy on the high seas might not be such a problem if Japan's far right PM had not recently proposed changing the constitution to give herself that very power, sparking not only 'street protests' but also: 

"...a furious response from Beijing... unwavering in its determination to “defend the outcomes of the victory” in the second world war."

In other words, by vastly overstepping its role as 'defender of the free world' to become the 'aggressor of the free world', the US is returning us to the situation in 1930s when the League of Nations unravelled: 

"After some notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. Its credibility was weakened because the United States never joined. Japan and Germany left in 1933, Italy left in 1937, and Spain left in 1939. The Soviet Union only joined in 1934 and was expelled in 1939 after invading Finland." 

History might not repeat itself, but it often rhymes...