# Kelly wants us to judge him by "what Trump didn't do" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 1, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045 "2019-01-01T17:40:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045/41 "2019-01-02T20:12:10Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > What exactly is conspiratorial about your support of mercenaries and spooks? Quote me where I do that or shut your lying, stupid, conspiratorial pie hole. The last reply I did mentioned the old adage about the fish rotting from the head, the clear implication was that I do not support the military guys that are telling Trump “how it is”, because indeed they do not deserve respect for enabling turds like Bush the lesser, the only value their criticism of Trump is to show all how Trump is an idiot for not identifying good advisors. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045/42 "2019-01-02T20:26:04Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Quote me where I do that or shut your lying, stupid, conspiratorial pie hole. > > The last reply I did mentioned the old adage about the fish rotting from the head, the clear implication was that I do not support the military guys that are telling Trump “how it is”, because indeed they do not deserve respect for enabling turds like Bush the lesser, the only value their criticism of Trump is to show all how Trump is an idiot for not identifying good advisors. You claimed a takedown of incompetent mercenaries was “gaslighting” for Trump. A clear defense of them. Elsewhere you have lauded spooks on the Russian meddling question. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045/43 "2019-01-02T20:27:19Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Nailed in one, that was Tom Woods: > > [Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Opinion / Op-ed / Last of the Confederates](http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/02/21/last_of_the_confederates/) Yes that article is an example of the imbecility lampooned in the linked video. Thanks for the supporting artifact. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045/44 "2019-01-02T20:38:46Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > You claimed a takedown of incompetent mercenaries was “gaslighting” for Trump. A clear defense of them. So, no, you can not quote me on that. Well, thank you for showing all that you really have a dizzying intellect. Anyone can see that the gas-lighting was for **you** denying still that Trump is an incompetent. That the mercenaries are deplorable does not logically mean that I’m defending them. Only observing that one needs a rascal to identify one too. So you are indeed a certifiable incompetent regarding logic and reading comprehension. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Elsewhere you have lauded spooks on the Russian meddling question. Oh, sorry (I’m not, but I have to point the sarcasm here as you are an incompetent on those matters too) that you think that I’m defending them too, while one has to take what the intelligence community is telling us with a grain of sand, it is reckless to defend Trump who is not only ignoring what our intelligence community is telling us, but Trump is also undermining them. So wrong on all counts, and my point that you do rely on idiotic conspiracy theories stands. ---
**Author:** ![UnwittingAmericans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d9b06d/32.png) [@UnwittingAmericans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwittingAmericans)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045/45 "2019-01-02T20:49:35Z")
Kelly’s an asshole and a liar. The shit he pulled on that Florida congresswoman was despicable. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045/46 "2019-01-02T20:51:56Z")
Nah. You defend murderers in this thread. I’m not going to hunt down your Russophobia stuff, where you have become unhinged on more than one occasion. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045/47 "2019-01-02T21:00:01Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Nah. You defend murderers in this thread. Show me anyone that agrees with you on that, in reality you are just digging into the hole harder, but please proceed governor. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I’m not going to hunt down your Russophobia stuff, where you have become unhinged on more than one occasion. Yep, I have to put that as more evidence of you being an ignorant of even what I posted before. Again, pointing that members of an administration are deplorable does not mean that Trump is exonerated, far from it. And that the military guys are deplorable makes Trump look worse, not better. > **[Dana Milbank: Common refrain of those leaving White House: Don’t blame me](https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2019/01/02/dana-milbank-common/)** > > Washington • One by one they leap — or are pushed — from the foundering USS Trump, each offering a variation of the same plea: Don’t blame me. > [@](#): > > Don’t blame Kelly for Trump’s fabricated “crisis” at the southern border. “If you want to stop illegal immigration, stop U.S. demand for drugs and expand economic opportunity” in Central America, Kelly proposed. > > Don’t blame him for Trump’s claims that Hispanic immigrants spread violence and drugs. “Illegal immigrants, overwhelmingly, are not bad people,” Kelly said. > > And don’t blame him for the travel ban or the family separation policies, either. Rather, he, argued, he should be judged for what Trump didn’t do: withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan (which he’s doing now), pull troops out of South Korea or withdraw from NATO (which remain uncertain). > > Right. And if we judge success by things that didn’t happen, we should also credit Kelly for avoiding a zombie apocalypse. > > Kelly served his country honorably for decades. But there’s nothing courageous in announcing, on the way out the door, that he didn’t agree with many awful things Trump did on his watch. There was, once, a good argument that qualified people, by taking administration jobs, could temper Trump’s worst instincts. But it turned out Trump was not to be tempered. Those who disagreed with the madness had an obligation to resign, or at least to speak out — not to wash their hands of responsibility after the fact. > > Don’t blame Rex Tillerson. The ousted secretary of state recently told Bob Schieffer of CBS News he reined in Trump by saying “you can’t do it that way. It violates the law. It violates a treaty.” > > Don’t blame Jim Mattis. The former defense secretary waited until resigning to publicly state his disagreements with Trump over NATO, “malign actors” such as Russia and “treating allies with respect.” > > Don’t blame Reince Priebus. Trump’s first chief of staff spoke up about Trump’s chaos after he was ousted, telling author Chris Whipple: “Take everything you’ve heard and multiply it by 50.” > [@](#): > > But the after-the-fact criticism seems self-serving — a way for Trump enablers to rebuild their reputations and find new jobs. Tucker Carlson, an unstinting Trump booster, used the anonymity of a German-language weekly to put on the record that he questions Trump’s competence, knowledge, self-aggrandizement and personnel choices. > > Even Carlson, though, is braver than the anonymous Trump official who wrote The New York Times op-ed about efforts to sabotage Trump from within. How long before the author emerges to claim credit — and perhaps a book contract? Proposed title: Don’t blame me. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045/48 "2019-01-02T21:06:18Z")
One more thing: clearly **WillFarnaby** does not have a clue of the whole meaning of the old: “A fish rots from the head down” \*\*It is already implied \*\*that the followers or minions of the head honcho appear deplorable too. That he still thinks that that was a defense of them is not my problem. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045/49 "2019-01-02T21:25:55Z")
They worked for Obama. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045/50 "2019-01-02T21:32:31Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > They worked for Obama. Meaningless retort since I was not defending them. So, in conclusion we have to assume that you **do** ignore sound advise about rotting fish and none should accept invitations to go to your house for dinner. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2019, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045/51 "2019-01-09T20:05:35Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Meaningless retort since I was not defending them. So, in conclusion we have to assume that you **do** ignore sound advise about rotting fish and none should accept invitations to go to your house for dinner. 🙂 Why waste your time with that son of a bitch? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kelly-wants-us-to-judge-him-by-what-trump-didnt-do/827045.md?page=2)