Friday, September 9, 2016

“…And Smote Him, Thus”

Gary Johnson stabbed himself on live TV yesterday morning.

Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson doesn’t know what Aleppo is, but that doesn’t prevent him from having an opinion on it.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” the former governor of New Mexico was asked what he’d do about the war-torn northern Syrian city of Aleppo if he were elected president.

“What is Aleppo?” he responded.

After hosts explained to Johnson that fighting in Aleppo is one of the roots of the Syrian refugee crisis, he launched into a detailed opinion about the United States’ role in the situation. But “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough wasn’t letting him off that easy.

“Aleppo is the center of a lot of people’s concerns across the planet about the terrible humanitarian crisis that is unfolding,” Scarborough said. “You a.sked ‘What is Aleppo?’ Do you really think that foreign policy is so insignificant that somebody running for president of the United States shouldn’t even know what Aleppo is, where Aleppo is, why Aleppo is so important?”

Johnson later explained in a statement that he “was thinking about an acronym, not the Syrian conflict.”

Not only that, it’s an ancient and fabled city known throughout history.  Even William Shakespeare had heard of it, and he brings it up in the climax of “Othello.”

OTHELLO:

Soft you; a word or two before you go.
I have done the state some service, and they know’t.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice:then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought
Perplex’d in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;
And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban’d Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him, thus.

Stabs himself

Thank you for playing, Gary; we have some lovely parting gifts for you.

3 barks and woofs on ““…And Smote Him, Thus”

  1. To hear that wonderful, achingly tragic soliloquy again . . .
    Thank you. But it’s not necessary for Johnson to commit suicide on stage. We already have enough drama.

  2. Over at Booman (on the 8th) he has a post about the correlation between Mohamed Atta & Aleppo. I never remember reading this. Interesting.

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