Trump to Duterte: "You are a good man."

on a related front:

Trump tells Duterte of two U.S. nuclear subs in Korean waters


Dear President Trump:

I know I usually just rant at you on Twitter, your preferred mode of communication, but I had some important things to 'splain to you, and I thought maybe, just maybe, Courier font would get through to you.

1) Duterte is not a good guy. He's a murdering lunatic dictator.

B) killing people is not the same thing as doing a good job.

III) Duterte is not our country's friend, and there is no excuse, none, for sharing info on our nuclear subs. Zippo. Nada. Nyet.

iv) WTF. Seriously, WTF.

Sincerely,
CassandraW

I just can't believe our president seems chummier with/more positive about Putin and Duterte than about, say, Angela Merkel.

Even if he didn't take to Merkel personally, he really, really needs to remember which world leader represents our long-time important ally, and which world leaders are total fuckhead, brutal, untrustworthy dictators.

By the way, any thoughts on why Trump is being so chummy with Duterte?

Does he not know about the murdering and all of Duterte's horrifying speeches? Does he actually think they're good things? What exactly IS good or admirable, by any definition, about Duterte?

Thoughts?

The comparison I'm about to make is totally bizarre, but bear with me for a minute.

One of the more amusing literary flubs was made by Robert Browning in his poem "Pippas Passes". Towards the end, one of the verses says:

But at night, brother Howlet, far over the woods,
Toll the world to thy chantry;
Sing to the bats’ sleek sisterhoods
Full complines with gallantry:
Then, owls and bats, cowls and twats,
Monks and nuns, in a cloister’s moods,
Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry!

Uh...yeah. Turns out Browning was under the mistaken impression a twat was part of a nun's habit. No one had the guts to enlighten him about his error for more than 40 years, and so it is the word "twat" is enshrined in a work of non-pornographic literature.

So. I'm wondering if there's any shot Trump really doesn't KNOW about Duterte. He has a notoriously short attention span. Maybe all he picked up was "has a tough drug policy."  And maybe now that he's gone out on a limb praising Duterte, no one has the guts to fill him in.

Not that it's an excuse, but it would be better than Trump genuinely thinking it was awesome.

Anyway. Really, I just wanted an excuse to tell the Browning story, which I just love.

An interesting read: 

www.vox.com/world/2017/5/1/15502610/trump-philippines-rodrigo-duterte-obama-putin-erdogan-dictators