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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Rex Tillerson Knows All The Languages And Has A Photographic Memory

Rex Tillerson Knows All The Languages And Has A Photographic Memory

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Turkey’s president and foreign minister today.

He was the only American present, according to this Bloomberg News reporter.

He has done this before. It’s diplomatic malpractice not to have one’s own interpreter. The other guy’s interpreter can tell you what you want to hear, and the other guy’s note-taker can write it up so it looks like you agreed with what they want to hear. It’s stupid beyond belief.

And interpreting (which is the correct term for working with speech in real time) is a full-time job. Nobody’s foreign minister should be interpreting. They are participating in the meeting.

Not having his own interpreter and note-taker tells the world that Tillerson can be rolled.

 

Open thread. What kind of stupidity have you encountered today?

Reader Interactions

95Comments

  1. 1.

    Brachiator

    Today, Secretary Tillerson held a bilateral meeting with #Turkey’s President @rt_erdogan and Foreign Minister @mevlutcavusoglu in Ankara to discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues.

    So I guess there will be a lot of bilateral stuff going on.

    He has done this before. It’s diplomatic malpractice not to have one’s own interpreter. The other guy’s interpreter can tell you what you want to hear, and the other guy’s note-taker can write it up so it looks like you agreed with what they want to hear. It’s stupid beyond belief.

    What’s wrong with these people? Is it the arrogance or the incompetence?

    And this kind of thing too often goes unmentioned because it goes unnoticed. People look at the people in charge and assume that they know what they are doing.

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Turkey’s president and foreign minister today.

    If I click the video link does it continue to the part where Rex gets to his knees? I have had enough horror for one week.

  3. 3.

    Jay

    @Brachiator:

    The way this works in the Corporate world is much different than diplomacy. In the Corporate world, yacking is just yacking, it’s the Contract Lawyers who make the agreements, often over months of back and forth.

  4. 4.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Tillerson speaks a dozen languages, knows all the local customs. He’ll blend in…

  6. 6.

    Roger Moore

    Not having his own interpreter and note-taker tells the world that Tillerson can be rolled.

    It tells the world he wants to be rolled.

    ETA: More realistically, it says he’s hiding stuff from his own government, i.e. he’s on the take.

  7. 7.

    clay

    Some people — looking at you, Morning Joe — claim that Tillerson is one of the adults trying to save us from the horrors of the Trump administration. Now, if one is two years old, a six-year-old may look like an adult. But they aren’t.

    I know Tillerson avoids the press, but it sure would be great to get him on the record as to what he was thinking here. Maybe Congress will inves… ha ha I can’t finish that sentence!

  9. 9.

    Brachiator

    @Jay:

    The way this works in the Corporate world is much different than diplomacy. In the Corporate world, yacking is just yacking, it’s the Contract Lawyers who make the agreements, often over months of back and forth.

    So does this mean that Rex the Wonder Clown is stupidly trying to impose Corporate world practices on the diplomatic realm? This cannot end well.

  10. 10.

    schrodingers_cat

    The problem with T cabinet is that everyone thinks that they think that they are smarter than they really are. But then a bloated sense of self, or over-confidence may be a national failing.

  11. 11.

    The Moar You Know

    He has done this before. It’s diplomatic malpractice not to have one’s own interpreter.

    In my late twenties, I was the product manager for a cheapskate company importing crap violins and acoustic guitars from Korea and China and my boss, who experienced physical pain every time he had to part with a nickel, REQUIRED me to conduct any and all business AND after-work social activities with an interpreter that was maintained on salary by the company. You can’t do overseas business with folks who don’t speak your language any other way. The other guys always have at least one too, for exactly the same reasons.

    And I really want to reinforce that we were the most two-bit, loser company out there, and we still had our own interpreters.

    It’s not diplomatic malpractice, it’s just plain fucking stupid.

    More realistically, it says he’s hiding stuff from his own government, i.e. he’s on the take.

    @Roger Moore: That was my go-to theory for a long time. At this point, I am reconsidering. I’m not sure he’s that smart.

  12. 12.

    LesGS

    If they’ve gutted the State Department to the point they have no Turkish speakers left, I’m sure my dad, a retired FSO, would be willing to volunteer. His security clearances may even still be up to date, which is more than you can say for the White House staff. Better yet, couldn’t they just swing by the American Embassy and pick up the politcal or economics guy/gal? They probably speak Turkish. (I know they’re not interpreters, but at least they know the language.)

    I’m a little hesitant to ask Dad what he thinks about what’s going on at State these days. He’s pretty healthy for an 80+ yo guy, but I would hate to be the one to cause him to pop his cork…

  13. 13.

    TenguPhule

    It’s stupid beyond belief.

    Sorry, these folks have broken new ground in what is stupid within belief.

  14. 14.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    So does this mean that Rex the Wonder Clown is stupidly trying to impose Corporate world practices on the diplomatic realm? This cannot end well.

    This Thanksgiving, I think Turkey is gonna carve up the United States.

  15. 15.

    Major Major Major Major

    What kind of stupidity have you encountered today?

    Did you know that the iPhone’s touch sensors can only handle five fingers at a time?

    This hasn’t actually affected my life and it’s not particularly stupid but I did run into it.

  16. 16.

    Roger Moore

    I sincerely doubt this is about arrogance. This is about malfeasance. It’s the exact same reason Trump meets with Russian representatives without anyone else around: he’s trying to avoid witnesses. He cares far more about hiding what he’s doing from the rest of the US government than he does about getting details and nuance right, or even getting the best deal. This is how traitors act.

  17. 17.

    TenguPhule

    @Corner Stone:

    If I click the video link does it continue to the part where Rex gets to his knees? I have had enough horror for one week.

    IIRC, getting on the knees is reserved for young boys.

    Men have to bend over.

  19. 19.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Brachiator:

    Is it the arrogance or the incompetence?

    Yes
    @Jay:

    The way this works in the Corporate world is much different than diplomacy. In the Corporate world, yacking is just yacking, it’s the Contract Lawyers who make the agreements, often over months of back and forth.

    Thanks. That is at least one way I can understand the behavior. Although I am suspicious enough that if I were making inconsequential small talk through the other guy’s interpreter, I’d be worried that they were laughing at me. But I guess nobody laughs at Rex.

  20. 20.

    Brachiator

    @clay:

    Some people — looking at you, Morning Joe — claim that Tillerson is one of the adults trying to save us from the horrors of the Trump administration.

    This “adults in the room” thing needs to be retired.

    Trump is running this shit show. And he picks people primarily based on how good they are at playing the sycophant. Competence not included. Independence or failure to go along with house rules guaranteed to get you kicked out of the club. And Trump clearly reacts badly to any hint that he is being “managed” by someone more mature or seasoned.

  21. 21.

    Thoughtful David

    @Roger Moore:
    Yep. It most definitely says he wanted to say something that no American could hear.
    Corruption or treason, those are your two choices.

  23. 23.

    Jay

    @Brachiator:

    The Swamp Creatures don’t understand Diplomatic norms, or Legislation, or Govornance.

    The Modern CEO never sees the 12,500 level grunts, or their hundreds of thousands of hours in the cubicles turning a CEO’s vague “vision”, into actual results.

  24. 24.

    kindness

    And Tillerson ran Exxon for all those years?

    Holy shit how did they run profits? Oh yea….because Big Oil owns us.

  26. 26.

    TS

    No-one in the trump government wants trump or congress to know what they are doing. This is how they worked outside of politics, they wish to continue same. Open governance is not their byline. The GOP applauds.

    In theory, the 4th Estate would hold them to the fire on this – but I digress to humor.

  27. 27.

    Mary G

    Ron Brownstein has an article in the Atlantic today about the two Americas, and why it means that nothing gets done:

    The dim odds that Congress will respond to the Parkland school massacre with meaningful gun control and the flickering prospects it will pass immigration reform both reflect the same obstacle: the widening trench between the forces of transformation and restoration in American politics.

    The convergence of the two policy debates today—with the nation reeling from Wednesday’s shooting in Florida and the Senate voting down an array of proposals on immigration—is coincidental but revealing. Both issues illuminate the central divide between the parties as their political coalitions have sorted and separated along lines of race, generation, education, and geography. On both matters, Republicans are championing primarily non-urban and predominantly white constituencies that want fewer immigrants and more access to guns. Democrats reflect a mirror-image consensus: Their voters coming from diverse urban areas usually support more immigrants and fewer guns.

    Most of America wants to go forward, but our system is rigged so those who want to go back have more power than they deserve.

  30. 30.

    John Revolta

    @Brachiator: Trump has said, back in his pre-Presidentin’ days, that he doesn’t like to hire anybody smarter than him. While we reflect on how this has worked out for him in his business endeavors let’s also reflect that basically anybody he hires is QED either an idiot or just good at pretending to be an idiot. IOW, the best we can hope for is that a Trump hire is just a devious bastard.

  31. 31.

    Tim C.

    Okay, any possibility this is more than just incompetence? Flynn had Turkish connection and while I can’t remember details, there have been other issues related to this administration and Turkey. Maybe he doesn’t *want* any American ears in the room for a reason.

  32. 32.

    Yutsano

    @John Revolta: Rexxon took the job for one reason: to get the Russian sanctions lifted for Exxon. That’s it. He’s pretty much already failed at that. Why he’s bothering to go through any further motions is a mystery at this point.

  33. 33.

    TenguPhule

    @kindness:

    Holy shit how did they run profits?

    1) the US pays them to pump the oil.

    2) Bush Jr. kindly let oil run up to over $150 per barrel.

  34. 34.

    TenguPhule

    @Yutsano:

    Why he’s bothering to go through any further motions is a mystery at this point.

    He’s branching out into bribery from other nations.

  36. 36.

    GregB

    The entire Trump operation is a criminal enterprise in caahoots with a global league of autocrats, oligarchs and mobsters.

  39. 39.

    FlyingToaster

    Today I was the moron; I left at the last minute to go fetch WarriorGirl from Math Club, and arrived at the gas station without my wallet. Which was sitting next to my laptop where I’d ordered new pants for the rapidly lengthening WG*. My minivan is running on fumes, so I’ll be heading out and hoping to make it before the engine runs dry.

    * She’s 10 years, 5 months, and about 5’2.5″. Halfway through 4th grade, she’s as tall as I was at the end of 8th grade, and an inch shorter that I am now. Since there’s a 40% off coupon, one buys the pants already.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Did you know that the iPhone’s touch sensors can only handle five fingers at a time?

    Prompted by exactly the same reflex that makes some people touch the wet paint every time they see the WET PAINT — DO NOT TOUCH sign, I immediately had to test the six-finger thing on my own iPhone. You’re right!

    Now what shall I do with that shiny new fact?

  44. 44.

    Mary G

    @Yutsano: He found that gutting the State Department was fun, and in a couple of years, there will be no one in government to object to lifting the sanctions.

  45. 45.

    Mike in NC

    Tillerson isn’t remotely qualified for his job, but that’s the whole problem with Trump’s greedy, grasping kakistocristry.

  48. 48.

    brendancalling

    I’ve been enjoying (for lack of a better term) calling my reps and senators here in TN, identifying myself as a Christian, and then passing along the Bible verses that condemn faith without action (James 2:14) and the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:32-46). The latter is the one with the admonition “ what you do to the least of us, you do to me… Depart from me I never knew you.“

    I suggested that Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander spend their time counting their ill-gotten gains from the tax cut, And if they must pray They should say one prayer for every dollar the NRA gave them

  50. 50.

    Frank Wilhoit

    “…The other guy’s interpreter can tell you what you want to hear, and the other guy’s note-taker can write it up so it looks like you agreed with what they want to hear….”

    Turkey (before, during, or after the AKP) are a single-issue nation, and that issue is the Kurds, who delenda sunt. Watch for the Turks now to go after the Kurds in Syria and tell the Russians we gave them the green light to do so.

  51. 51.

    TenguPhule

    Speaking of Corruption….

    Donald Trump’s inauguration committee paid two private companies more than $50 million for event planning while donating $5 million to charitable causes after the January 2017 event in Washington, according to new federal tax documents filed by the nonprofit committee.

    The filings for the Presidential Inaugural Committee show that the organization paid nearly $26 million to an obscure event planning firm based in Southern California. The company, WIS Media Partners, is described in the tax filings as an “event production” firm, but California state incorporation records do not list the firm’s owner.

    But The New York Times reported today that the firm was started by Stephanie Winston-Wolkoff, a New York event planner who has been an adviser to first lady Melania Trump. Winston-Wolkoff, who is a longtime friend of the first lady’s, was known to be involved in the inauguration’s planning, but the tax filings do not provide any explanation for her $26 million compensation or a breakdown of her work.

    Winston-Wolkoff did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment left with a family member. WIS Media Partners’ California registrar, Los Angeles lawyer Richard Garzilli, also did not immediately respond to a phone message.

    The committee had raised nearly $107 million for the lavish event, an unprecedented inaugural price tag nearly twice that of President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. But some of those involved in or aware of the committee’s work told the AP last September that the orchestration of the event was marred by last-minute decisions, staffing turnover and little financial oversight.

    Tom Barrack, the committee’s chairman and a New York private equity investor who is a close friend of the president, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    A second event planning firm, Hargrove Inc., based in Lanham, Md., was paid $25 million for its work producing the event. The same firm had been paid about $5 million for its work in 2009 for Obama’s inaugural committee. The firm’s CEO, Tim McGill, was not immediately available for comment.

    The inauguration committee reported a profit of $2.7 million after the charitable donations. Despite earlier statements that that profit would go to charity, there was no indication in the tax documents that it had yet been donated.

  52. 52.

    Amaranthine RBG

    @TenguPhule:

    Didn’t he have to stay in the job for a year or something not to get hit with a huge tax biill for the stock he was required to divest?

    Seems like I remember reading something about that.

  53. 53.

    Amir Khalid

    @Corner Stone:
    The video is all of ten seconds long. You see Tillerson and Erdogan shaking hands; then you see Tillerson, Erdogan, and Cavusoglu sitting down. You hear camera shutters clacking. The end.

    Maybe an interpreter wasn’t needed for a conversation to take place — because Erdogan and Cavusoglu speak English, or because Tillerson speaks Turkish. (The latter seems unlikely to me.) Even so, each side at a bilateral meeting needs its own witnesses and note-takers. Did Tillerson disregard any standard procedure by being the only American in the room?

  54. 54.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @John Revolta:

    Trump has said, back in his pre-Presidentin’ days, that he doesn’t like to hire anybody smarter than him.

    I have a vague recollection that Obama used to say almost precisely the opposite — that he wanted to surround himself with smart people, people who could challenge his assumptions, people who would make him smarter by their very presence.

  56. 56.

    efgoldman

    @Brachiator:

    What’s wrong with these people?

    He rose to the top of one off the universe’s biggest corporations. Apparently he caught Ferrethead Prion disease when he associated with “the president”

  57. 57.

    Brachiator

    @Frank Wilhoit:

    Turkey (before, during, or after the AKP) are a single-issue nation, and that issue is the Kurds, who delenda sunt. Watch for the Turks now to go after the Kurds in Syria

    Already happening. There may be something more at play here.

    @Cheryl Rofer: Yikes! Are the Turks asking the US to prove our love by betraying our Kurdish allies?

    Turkish Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli said his U.S. counterpart James Mattis had offered to have Syrian Kurdish forces help Turkey in its fight against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants waging a three-decade-old guerrilla campaign in southeast Turkey, the Turkish service of Russian news website Sputnik said.

    Canikli said Mattis had offered to have the Syrian Kurdish force, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) fight the PKK in order to create a clear split between the two groups.

    Could the Trump Administration really be this stupid?

  58. 58.

    TenguPhule

    @Amaranthine RBG:

    Didn’t he have to stay in the job for a year or something not to get hit with a huge tax biill for the stock he was required to divest?

    Apparently not. Laws are just guidelines these days.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    OT ..

    The Senate on Thursday rejected immigration legislation crafted by centrists in both parties after President Trump threatened to veto the bill if it made it to his desk.

    In a 54-45 vote, the Senate failed to advance the legislation from eight Republican, seven Democratic and one Independent senators. It needed 60 votes to overcome a procedural hurdle.

    It’s Trump’s way or the highway.

  62. 62.

    Bill Arnold

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Prompted by exactly the same reflex that makes some people touch the wet paint every time they see the WET PAINT — DO NOT TOUCH sign,

    One painter I knew (corporate environment) used to put up signs saying “Wet Paint. Test Spot -> ( ) ” roughly, with a circle that they painted in. It got the point across better by gently mocking all the touchers, and was useful.

  63. 63.

    Corner Stone

    @Amir Khalid:

    You see Tillerson and Erdogan shaking hands; then you see Tillerson, Erdogan, and Cavusoglu sitting down. You hear camera shutters clacking. The end.

    It’s when the cameras stop filming that the fluffer really starts their performance.

  64. 64.

    jl

    @Brachiator: From what I read, not clear anything can get through without a lot of help from Trump and McConnell. But Trump is not helping, in fact going out of his way not to help. And McConnell making a (insultingly?) weak show of helping, but not.

  65. 65.

    Corner Stone

    Ramesh Ponnuru’s voice sounds just like NBC’s Kristin Welker. If you aren’t looking and Ramesh starts talking you could not tell it was not a female.

  66. 66.

    Jay

    @Amaranthine RBG:

    Yup, the money was locked into a Trust until Feb.2nd, 2018. If he bailed before then, $71 million amero’s in taxes. After Feb. 2nd, he could start moving the money, $182 million amero’s into other arms length investments.

  68. 68.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Brachiator: I don’t follow events with the Kurds as closely as I do other things, so I’m not gonna opine on this one. but I will note that it’s the Turkish defense minister telling us what Mattis has told him. I hope Mattis has an interpreter and note-taker along when he talks to these guys…

  69. 69.

    Roger Moore

    @Brachiator:
    It really ought to be hard for anyone to treat this as anything other than Trump’s policy at this point. When he kills a policy by threatening to veto it, the failure really ought to be on his head. It will be edifying to see how this is spun into a “both sides” failure.

  70. 70.

    efgoldman

    What kind of stupidity have you encountered today?

    I turned on the local news
    I did NOT see/hear the asshole. I’ve lost enough brain cells, thank you

  71. 71.

    Baud

    @Roger Moore:

    WaPo almost goes there top put the blame where is belongs.

    Trump may argue that he can’t legally renew DACA and that Congress has to do it. But if and when it lapses, he will officially have undone a program protecting young people who became undocumented immigrants because of decisions that weren’t their own when they were children. If and when they get deported, it will be because of an action Trump took. That could be a PR problem for the GOP — and one Republicans may try harder to avoid as we get closer to it becoming a reality. We know from the recent spending-bill fights that Congress will go right up to, or past, a deadline.

    Trump and fellow Republicans may argue that it is congressional Democrats’ fault for failing to make enough concessions in the deals that earned votes Thursday. But strictly speaking, Trump is the one who undid DACA, and Congress could probably pass a stand-alone DACA bill immediately if he urged Congress to do so. He hasn’t done so, of course, and the White House has even suggested that it would veto the bipartisan Schumer-Rounds-Collins bill that came up six votes shy Thursday, despite it containing plenty of concessions in exchange for DACA.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/the-fix/wp/2018/02/15/the-daca-and-immigration-debate-is-now-a-giant-game-of-chicken/

  74. 74.

    NotMax

    Will the last person to leave Foggy Bottom please turn out the lights?

    The U.S. State Department is promoting far fewer people — 50 percent less — into some of the first levels of senior Foreign Service positions, according to data obtained by McClatchy.

    The reduced rate of promotions is taking place even as veteran, senior diplomats have departed in recent months. The result, diplomats and others say, is the Trump administration is taking a risk by not replenishing talent needed to buildthe diplomatic corps and leadership of tomorrow.
    [snip]
    The news comes as the Trump administration also proposed another steep cut in the diplomatic budget, by more than 25 percent, raising alarms that the administration is intentionally undercutting the State Department’s work and U.S. influence in the world. Source

  77. 77.

    MoxieM

    I tried to explain to Euro-local grown child how I now live in a haze of expectation that each day will bring more incompetence, immorality, venality, and generally disgusting breeches of ethics from (mainly) Republican politicians that, well–I can barely tolerate paying attention. But of course I keep trying to force myself. For some insane reason I had thought of Tillerson as one of the less bad, awful, bad guys. Wrong.

    Adult child in question works as a commercial translator/editor, and they have pretty much any language you can think of on call. Can’t say much about security clearances, but you know, a little creative thinking–I’ll bet there are people in the German government with (at least German) clearances who speak Turkish. For example.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    @MoxieM

    I’ll bet there are people in the German government with (at least German) clearances who speak Turkish.

    Also too, Israel. Turkey is a popular vacation destination for Israelis (with the exceptions of short-term interims when diplomatic relations become frosty).

  80. 80.

    stinger

    What kind of stupidity have you encountered today?

    Nothing anywhere near as stupid as the Trump/Pence administration.

  81. 81.

    TenguPhule

    @NotMax:

    is the Trump administration is taking a risk by not replenishing talent needed to buildthe diplomatic corps and leadership of tomorrow.

    This is a feature, not a bug.

    “We come in peace, shoot to kill.” is not going to be satire.

  82. 82.

    ewrunning

    As a 26-year State Department veteran, agree this is unbelievably stupid. Is Tillerson sitting down somehere afterward and writing a memorandum of conversation? Of course he isn’t. Which means that no one in the U.S. Embassy or anywhere else in the U.S. government will have any idea what was said. Plus, it clearly signals the Turkish government that there is no one in the U.S. Embassy Tillerson considers important enough to bring to the meeting. Why would Erdogan or the Turkish Foreign Minister ever bother to talk to them again after this?

  84. 84.

    Brachiator

    @ewrunning:

    As a 26-year State Department veteran, agree this is unbelievably stupid. Is Tillerson sitting down somehere afterward and writing a memorandum of conversation? Of course he isn’t. Which means that no one in the U.S. Embassy or anywhere else in the U.S. government will have any idea what was said. Plus, it clearly signals the Turkish government that there is no one in the U.S. Embassy Tillerson considers important enough to bring to the meeting. Why would Erdogan or the Turkish Foreign Minister ever bother to talk to them again after this?

    Excellent points.

    At best (and still very bad), the Trump Administration believes that diplomatic protocol is just a lot of fluffy BS, and they are doing it Corporate style, “man to man” (with all the macho implications), and simply don’t realize how this actually puts them in a weak position.

  86. 86.

    Bill

    @Baud: Some people (roughly 1 in 4 IIRC) excel at judging and hating others based on factors/qualities/attributes beyond the control of those others. “We must denigrate and despise that person based on the skin color that they chose for themselves”. “We should fear and shun that person because of the religion that they inherited from their parents”. “We must deport that person for actions undertaken not by them, but perhaps for them, by others”.

    These people routinely refuse to condemn people who make horrible choices; who do horrible deeds. Often because they (the former) agree with those (the latter) people. Angry at people for things that those people had no part of, accepting of people who are knowingly evil.

    Interesting effing planet we live on.

  88. 88.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    What’s wrong with these people? Is it the arrogance or the incompetence?

    Didn’t read the comments so I’d bet this has been answered before, but it is fucking both.
    He’s probably not a complete idiot, although he is a republican….. He was/is the CEO of a major worldwide theft organization so he had to have at least something going on, but then I worked for a company that the board screwed up then lied about it and blamed the CEO. Who quit, over that primarily. And then they hired the most incompetent asswipe in a suit I think I’ve ever met. I’ve known adults with a 4th grade education and they weren’t as dumb as this fuck, not by a very long ways. He lasted a year. No one could believe that he was there longer than 2 weeks. He was too stupid to be a walmart greeter. He had worked as CEO of a number of non profits. He was still smarter than drumpf and quite a bit less of an asshole.

    I’ve come to the conclusion that anyone still a republican after the last 18 yrs is a fucking asshole. Every last one, to the core.

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    As you well know, you can’t learn much from a stupid person, except how stupid they are. Learning happens when someone who knows more than you helps you understand something. It’s not that old dogs can’t learn new tricks, we can, but we need to be accepting to the fact that we don’t know everything in the first place. So a massive narcissist can not have anyone smarter than them around, it shows them up to being the stupid git that they are. And a massive narcissist is always going to think they know more and know it better, that’s part of the concept in the first place.

  90. 90.

    Bonnie

    CNN is reporting that Rick Gates is going to talk. Hope he has lots of information on the Russia front.

  91. 91.

    The Midnight Lurker

    Sorry for coming late to the party, but just a quick note on Rex. He used to be my neighbor. And if it ever comes down to a choice between stupid and evil — trust me, it’s evil.

  92. 92.

    tamiasmin

    Just a tiny quibble. Since Tillerson is presumably remembering things he heard, not saw, shouldn’t it be a phonographic memory?

  93. 93.

    Procopius

    @LesGS: Well, in 1955 I attended the Air Force’s 8 month intensive Mandarin Chinese course. Eight hours a day, five days a week. When it was done we could have worked as simultaneous translators within the vocabulary we had, which requires an odd ability to multi-task, both listening and speaking or writing at the same time. I think there are schools which train and certify people for that, which is what a Secretary of State should have. The military does the same as Tillerson, except that sometimes they do have their own people who can speak a little of the language. It’s even more stupid here than it was in Vietnam and Iraq. I’ve never understood why they figure they can trust people they hire in occupied territory to be loyal to them.

  95. 95.

    Jinchi

    @Brachiator:

    What’s wrong with these people? Is it the arrogance or the incompetence?

    The simplest explanation is that he is the only American in the room because he plans to say things he doesn’t want other Americans hearing. Don’t mistake malice for incompetence.

    This has happened repeatedly with the Trump administration – such as Trump’s own discussions with Vladimir Putin at the G20 meeting (just Trump,Putin and Putin’s translator), or his meeting with Lavrov, Kislyak and a Russian photographer in the Oval office (no American reporters allowed). And of course Kushner famously tried to arrange back-channel communications via the Russian embassy, safe from American eyes.

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