Not Made Up

I'm on record that I won't vote for Donald Trump if he runs again in 2020. I say that because the circumstances under which I would vote for him are almost impossible to conceive: An evil scientist using either cloning technology or time travel presents us with a modern living version of some dictator like Hitler, Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot, and said reanimated meanie wins a spot on the ballot. For whatever reason, the vote total of the entire nation is known before the election and the forecast is a precise tie. I was somehow missed in the poll and so my vote will break the tie. In that case, I would indeed vote for Donald Trump -- which shows you how likely the scenario is.

But back in the real world, I won't do it. Although if he somehow grabbed hold of the idea that the United States should withdraw from the United Nations and kick the entire crew out of the country, and made said eviction happen (hey, he is a landlord, after a fashion), I would move closer towards the idea. Why? Well, consider these two items.

At its March 11 meeting, the UN Commission on the Status of Women announced that two new member nations would be joining: Nigeria and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nigeria's got a problematic record on human rights in general so it's a shaky choice, but Iran?

Here's another recent news item about Iran. Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes after being convicted on charges of spreading information against the state, insulting Iran's supreme leader and spying. Of course each and every charge is made up (adult word warning!) horseshit, because the government of Iran is a theocratic dictatorship that does not tell the truth. The government's real problem with Ms. Sotoudeh is that she represents women charged with things like not wearing a hijab head covering in public. The nine separate charges were handled in two trials, one of which was held without her present.

The semi-utopian vision of the UN's founders is completely understandable as they tried to not only make sense of an incredibly bloody decade of horror across the world but prevent a repeat. Perhaps the UN matched that vision for a time, but it's long since past. That vision would have cut Iran off from the world -- pointing out that if its leaders wanted to live in the 14th century they were welcome to do so, but nobody else was going to. Or do any business with those who did.

The modern UN, though, elevates these medieval monsters to having a say in how the world's gathered nations measure rights for women around the world. Who wants to be a part of that rot?

I expect numerous condemnations of Israel to be forthcoming.