Friday 29th of March 2024

pragmatism of the teetotaller...

drugs...

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Saturday invited the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, to the White House, embracing an authoritarian leader who is accused of ordering extrajudicial killings of drug suspects and who crudely disparaged Mr. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.

Mr. Trump had a “very friendly conversation with Mr. Duterte,” according to a statement issued by the White House late Saturday. It said that the two leaders “discussed the fact that the Philippines is fighting very hard to rid its country of drugs.”

In fact, Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs has resulted in the deaths of several thousand people suspected of using or selling narcotics, as well as others who may have had no involvement with drugs. Human rights groups and many Western governments have condemned Mr. Duterte for the bloody campaign.

A spokesman for Mr. Duterte, Ernesto Abella, confirmed the White House invitation, saying that Mr. Trump had expressed “his understanding and appreciation of the challenges facing the Philippine president, especially on the matter” of drugs.

read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/30/us/politics/trump-invites-rodrigo-duterte-to-the-white-house.html

 

china, russia and PH...

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte told reporters on Monday that he is open to joint military exercises with China. "Yes, I said I agree. We can have joint exercises here in Mindanao, maybe in the Sulu Sea," Duterte said after visiting a warship of the People's Liberation Army Navy docked in Davao City for a port visit.  Russia, which has also sent ships on goodwill visits to the Philippines, has also hinted at holding training exercises with the Philippines. In contrast, the annual Balikatan military exercises between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the US military have been scaled back this year. The exercises will focus on humanitarian assistance and disaster response and on counter-terrorism, the US Embassy in Manila announced last month. Duterte also said that the docking of two Chinese warships and a support vessel in Sasa Wharf  is part of confidence-building and goodwill. "To show that we are friends. That's why I welcome them here," Duterte, who has been building up relations with China and Russia as part of an independent foreign policy, said. On Sunday, the three Chinese ships docked at Sasa Wharf in Davao City as part of  a goodwill cruise to  Association of Southeast Asian Nations member-states. The ships will leave on Tuesday. The vessels include the guided missile destroyer Chang Chun (DDG150), the guided missile cruiser Jin Zhou (FFG 532) and Chao Hu (890), a replenishment ship.
read more:
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/05/02/1695721/duterte-philippines...

a moral compass to the world...

The United States has long seen itself as a beacon of democracy and a global advocate of human rights and the rule of law. It has faltered, sometimes badly, undermining leaders whose views did not fit its strategic objectives and replacing them with pliant despots. Yet for the most part American presidents, Republican and Democratic, have believed that the United States should provide a moral compass to the world, encouraging people to pursue their right to self-government and human dignity and rebuking foreign leaders who fall short.

Like so much else under President Trump, though, this idea has now been turned on its head and people are worried about the very survival of the values on which America built its reputation and helped construct an entire international system, including the United Nations. The latest example is Mr. Trump’s decision to invite Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, to the White House.

Though the Philippines is an ally and a democracy, Mr. Duterte is neither a democratic leader nor a worthy ally. For about two decades as mayor of Davao, he was accused of allowing death squads to roam the city and kill freely. Most victims were poor drug users and low-level criminals, but bystanders, children and political opponents were also caught up in the bloodshed.

read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/opinion/donald-trump-embraces-rodrigo-duterte.html

lost in space...

The man who has found himself on the United States president's bad side this week bears the quaint name of William Horsley Orrick, a 63-year-old who -- in his frameless glasses and side part -- has the classic look of a civil servant. Orrick is a District Court judge in San Francisco and on Tuesday, he blocked Donald Trump from penalizing those cities that provide immigrants special protections, such as making it more difficult for them to be deported. Trump had ordered that federal funding be withheld from these so-called "sanctuary cities." But with his ruling, Orrick has slapped a temporary stay on the order.

It was just the most recent defeat in the courts for the president, following the suspension of his travel ban targeting the citizens of several Muslim-majority countries -- and it didn't take long before the president went public with his rage. The ruling, Trump wrote in one of his early morning Twitter eruptions, is "ridiculous." He added: "See you in the Supreme Court!"

Trump has never made a secret of his intense disdain for the institutions that are necessary for a vigorous democracy: an independent judiciary, a critical press and a healthy opposition. Essentially, Trump would be happy to do away with all of that, or at least marginalize it. Following the ruling from San Francisco, he indicated that he is broadly dissatisfied with the federal judges there and threatened to curtail their power. 

The president's anger with people who contradict him and institutions that stand in his way does not fade with time. On the contrary, the more resistance Trump is faced with, the harder he fights and the more deeply he believes that he is right. But in a democracy, it is necessary to establish alliances and build coalitions. The president, too, must defer to these constraints: He is reliant on Congress, his power over the states is limited and judges are independent.

read more:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/trump-100-days-the-erosion-of-...

duterte and the chinese...

No matter how badly the media want Duterte to reject and confront China, the cold hard truth is that China is an “indispensable geographical reality,” as Richard Javad Heydarian in the National Interest recently put it. There is little that Duterte can do to confront China even if he really wanted to, as he is predicting a future in which Washington becomes increasingly irrelevant in the Asia-Pacific region all the while China begins to exert more and more influence in the area. Rather than butting heads with China, Duterte’s plan is exactly as he says - develop and explore the area jointly with China while coming to an arrangement, which does the complete opposite of what the media wants you to believe he will do, to avoid a war with China at all costs.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/428367-duterte-war-china-philippines/

from an ugly-ish brain inside an ugly man...

Throughout his political career, Duterte has made numerous controversial comments that have sparked public outrage. Some such comments have pertained to rape cases in his country.

While answering a question regarding the growing number of rape cases in his hometown of Davao, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said that rape crimes will continue to occur as long as beautiful women exist, local news outlet Rappler reported. He went on by saying that few women agree to have sex with someone just because he asked.

"They said there are many rape cases in Davao. As long as there are many beautiful women, there will be more rape cases. Who agrees to do it on the first request anyway? Will the woman allow it? No. Nobody agrees to do it on the first try. That is rape," Duterte said.

The president's spokesman later clarified that Duterte said it "by way of a joke" and that the statement should not be taken seriously, according to The New York Times. He further added that the "standard of what is offensive" is actually different and more "liberal" in the Philippines.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/asia/201809011067674980-duterte-rape-jokes/