Trump in Saudi Arabia

  There is so much news about Frump everyday that by the time I get around to sending an email there are multiple new stories to write about.  So this is a two day old email that has been bouncing around my cranium.

       I took anti nausea medication and listened to most of Frump's speech.  I thought his speech  was as good as he could do.  This is, however, a very low bar.  He was not bombastic.  He stayed on script, reading as best he could  from his teleprompter.  He actually mentioned Netanyahu as well as the State Of Israel.  

      My praise of Frump ends there.  His entire speech was almost entirely about fear mongering.  Basically all he spoke about was terrorism.  He could not have been more effusive in his praise for Saudi Arabia.  He said he was not going to lecture about how the Saudis should act.  This was a code  for not addressing human rights.  For that reason I have attached an article about women's rights in Saudi Arabia. It is chilling. In addition to denying women basic human rights, Saudi Arabia does not have anything resembling democracy,  It has nothing resembling a decent legal system.  In fact it practices an extreme form of Sharia law.  It jails dissidents.  It does not allow freedom of speech and assembly.  It still blames women who are victims of rape.  Its death penalty rate is sky high.  And we can never forget that the roots of 911 are in Saudi Arabia. I could go on.

      For me the worst part of Frump's speech was his hateful demonization of Iran.  I recognize that Iran does bad things.  Iran, however, has a system which is much closer to being a democracy than Saudi Arabia.  Look at the results of its last election. Its women  have much higher levels of education than in Saudi Arabia.  Its women are actually allowed to drive. Irani  women are not required to have a male guardian from the time they are born to the time they die, as in Saudi Arabia. Its young  people have shown time and again that they want better relations with the United States. There is clearly a second revolution taking place in Iran. President Obama was brilliant in trying to bring Iran into the  the world order rather than radicalizing the country.  If that continues we can have a more peaceful planet.   Frump continues the lie that the Iran nuclear deal was a disaster.  Frump bragged at an AIPAC convention that he knows more about the nuclear deal than anyone.  Many of the delegates could barely contain their laughter.   I wish I could bet right now that Frump could not name the countries which were signatories to the Iran Nuclear deal, let alone recite any of its provisions.  Fortunately, up to this point, Frump has not carried through his threat to rip up the Iran deal.  Hopefully,  it will be one more example of his disingenuousness.   

       Frump's speech did nothing to assuage my fear of what the future holds under this crazy man.  The news between the Saudi speech and today, however, suggest that his time in office may be short lived.  Let's hope.  Take care.

                                                                                    Richard

Women's rights in Saudi Arabia