Friday, May 05, 2017

Let's Rule Out Greedy Ass - Before We Call Him an Authoritarian

Robert Reich has a great column about Trump being an Authoritarian - as opposed to a Republican or Democrat.  Which is probably true.  I was drinking the Koolaid, until I got to this paragraph...

Finally, authoritarians promote other authoritarians, in an effort to normalize authoritarian rule.
Last Saturday, Trump invited President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines to visit the White House.
Duterte, you should know, is an authoritarian leader accused of ordering extrajudicial killings of thousands of people suspected of using or selling narcotics as well as others who may have had no involvement with drugs. He has referred to former President Barack Obama as a “son of a whore.” And he has declared open season on suspected terrorists, saying that if he were presented with a suspected terrorist, “give me salt and vinegar and I’ll eat his liver.”
Two weeks ago, Trump phoned to congratulate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey for his victory in a referendum filled with voting irregularities that expanded Erdogan’s powers and has put Turkey on the road to dictatorship.

Then I realized, maybe he's just greedy.  After all, he has two new Trump Towers going up in... (wait for it...)

Century City, Philippines & Instanbul, Turkey.