Tag: rodrigo duterte
Danziger: Death Squads? Extrajudicial Executions? No Problem!

Danziger: Death Squads? Extrajudicial Executions? No Problem!

Jeff Danziger’s award-winning drawings are published by more than 600 newspapers and websites. He has been a cartoonist for the Rutland Herald, the New York Daily News and the Christian Science Monitor; his work has appeared in newspapers from theWall Street Journal to Le Monde and Izvestia. Represented by the Washington Post Writers Group, he is a recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army as a linguist and intelligence officer in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. Danziger has published ten books of cartoons and a novel about the Vietnam War. He was born in New York City, and now lives in Manhattan and Vermont. A video of the artist at work can be viewed here.

Philippine President Calls President Obama ‘Son Of A Whore’

Philippine President Calls President Obama ‘Son Of A Whore’

For the most part, when American journalists and commentators described Rodrigo Duterte as the “Filipino Trump” when he won office in May, it was a rare instance in which Trump’s bombast and threatening remarks were overstated: As much as Trump threatens the possibility of fascistic rule and a new era of lethal “Law and Order” and “America First” brutality at home and abroad, Duterte explicitly articulated his violent plans from the start of his campaign last year, promising in November that Filipinos “better put up more funeral parlors” if he was elected.

He has kept that promise: 2,400 have been killed in the Philippines since July 1, Al Jazeera reports, the vast majority executed by vigilantes and other non-governmental groups for their suspected (and invented) ties to the drug trade.

We can only hope a president Trump would seek to discourage our own vigilantes: Not long ago, “Minutemen” were watching the Mexican border in shifts, armed with assault weapons and itchy trigger fingers.

But there is one ominous trait Duterte and Trump share: The endless demagogic requirement to shore up support at home among nationalists.

Yesterday, President Duterte called President Obama — the leader of the most powerful nation in history and a crucial military ally to his country in the face of an aggressive Chinese government — “son of a whore.” Obama canceled his planned meeting with Duterte shortly after. Whoever is elected president in November will surely take a much harsher stand against such an insult, especially early in their administration. Why would Duterte shoot himself in the foot?

And yet, Donald Trump showed a similar lack of tact last week, when he lied to the world about not discussing payment for a border wall with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, a statement that was immediately rebutted by representatives of the Mexican government. That sent a message worldwide: Don’t trust a President Trump, he’s too busy appealing to his base.

But that’s where the Duterte/Trump comparisons mostly end. Duterte is a murderous madman. Trump is a madman without a military.


Video: France 24 English