Saturday 12 November 2016

A new approach to diplomacy.

From the BBC:

Donald Trump's election risks upsetting EU ties with the US "fundamentally and structurally", EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned.

"We will need to teach the president-elect what Europe is and how it works," Mr Juncker told students in Luxembourg. The Commission chief predicted that two years would be wasted while Mr Trump "tours a world he doesn't know"…

Speaking on Friday, he said: "In general the Americans take no interest in Europe… During the campaign, Mr Trump said Belgium was a village somewhere on our continent… "


Trump and Juncker are both insufferably rude and conceited, but I'll give Juncker the points in this round for elegant sarcasm.

Juncker gets no points for originality though. I distinctly remember a Dave Lee Roth interview in the early 1980s where he claimed Sammy Hagar was dumb (it was not clear why he had a grudge against Hagar). Roth said that he had performed all over the world and learned something about each country he visited; Hagar had also performed all over the world but had learned nothing because he never had a clue where he actually was, or words to that effect. Ironically, a couple of years later, Lee Roth got kicked out of/left Van Halen and was replaced by… Sammy Hagar.

UPDATE: Mike W informs us in the comments that Dave Lee Roth was merely paraphrasing Frederick the Great:

"Thought, or, better to explain myself, the faculty of combining ideas, is what distinguishes man from beasts of burden. A mule, though he should have made ten campaigns under prince Eugene, would not have improved in his tactics.

And to the shame of humanity it must be confessed that, with respect to this kind of indolent stupidity, many old officers are not superior to such a mule."

4 comments:

MikeW said...

Don't know why,given the rock angle, but it reminded me of the Eugene's mule quote:

The famous saying of Frederick the Great: "A mule which... made twenty campaigns under Prince Eugene, would be none the better tactician...."

I'm guessing his mule was muddy sure, but underneath, a rich, thick, gold colour :)

MikeW said...

Fair enough:

I'm guessing his mule was muddy sure, but underneath a rich, deep blue, and would come running if you shouted, 'apple for Clinton' :)

Still works for me.

Mark Wadsworth said...

MW, good one, maybe Roth was educated enough to actually know and plagiarise FtG.

James Higham said...

Your first tag sums it up.