We seem to be surrounded by eccentric leaders

[webfact 135555]

 

OPINION | by Michael Bridge

First, there was Donald Trump who ruled the world during his Presidency via Twitter and people thought he was a bit off his trolley.

Then you have Kim Jong-un the President of North Korea who likes to send up missiles like its bonfire night and is now refusing help while thousands of North Koreans are dying or starving.

Thailand’s PM once commented about a murdered tourist on a Thai island should have not been wearing a bikini. But Sir she was on holiday!!! 

 

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The Philippines is not far behind with newly President Elec Ferdinand Marco Jr, who has the most unusual video doing the rounds.

It was aired last week on the John Oliver show in America, showing a video of Marcos Jr’s wife explaining to a reporter when he decided to run for President. 

“It was while we were watching the Marvel Movie Ant-Man that Marcos Jr decided to run for President.”
Really!!!!

 

God save the Philippines.

British PMs seem to continue the line of eccentric.

Gordon Brown apparently ate for kit kats a day then switched to nine bananas, Margaret Thatcher went through twenty-eight eggs a week to cut carbs and to lose weight.

 

Now we are seemingly stuck with party-going PM Boris Johnson who also got on well with Trump. Perhaps because they both had very weird haircuts.

Oh, and leaving the best to last, let’s not forget President Putin who loves to go bear chested and holds on to one meetings with visiting VIPs at an exceptionally long table.

Maybe Netflix should get them all together for a reality series.

Any suggestions for a title? 
 

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[Thaijack2014 333]

I can add to this list my own prime Minister Rutte from the Netherlands about whom I hear he's a controversial leader. Than the previous German chandler Merkel and finally (but not the last) the Brazilian president Bolsonaro, who denied Covid-19 same like his friend Trump did....

[Stargeezr 4959]

Of they all meet, call the netflick s title,  Odd balls meet.  No, not politically correct.

Oops   Never mind.

[Excel 11808]

It maybe politically correct to call those leaders eccentric, but how about considering the millions of absolute loonies running around freely on this planet who actually voted them all in ? 

[RichardColeman 52318]

'Doesn't hurt !' (screams like a girl inwardly)

 

 

[blazes 5109]

Talking of hair, why omit Mr Joseph Biden, who has spent most of his public life sniffing the hair of unwilling (to-be-sniffed) women....

Edited May 20 by blazes
mis-spelt Mr B's name

[hotchilli 40622]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Maybe Netflix should get them all together for a reality series.

Any suggestions for a title? 

Muppet show?

[Venom 1186]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

 

That limp handshake appears to be frustrating Trump. Looks like he's holding a wet noodle.  

[Pedrogaz 5436]

I think that the quality of leadership, especially in the West, is deplorable. These are people not even qualified to run a lemonade stand. The EU is particularly bad, where there are not competent leaders and the unelected Commission are self serving and don't give a toss about the citizens they are supposed to serve. A senile idiot former in the US....and an overgrown lying toddler in the UK. Scott Morrison who just recently threatened to invade the Solomon Islands, who just did a deal with China he didn't like.....and Trudeau....what can you say after his deplorable and illegal treatment of the trucking protest.

Damn them all.

[Eric Loh 22365]

24 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

I think that the quality of leadership, especially in the West, is deplorable. These are people not even qualified to run a lemonade stand. The EU is particularly bad, where there are not competent leaders and the unelected Commission are self serving and don't give a toss about the citizens they are supposed to serve. A senile idiot former in the US....and an overgrown lying toddler in the UK. Scott Morrison who just recently threatened to invade the Solomon Islands, who just did a deal with China he didn't like.....and Trudeau....what can you say after his deplorable and illegal treatment of the trucking protest.

Damn them all.

The voter turnout is a good indication of the people disillusion with the quality of their politicians or the platforms they present. Countries that have above 75% of the voting age population showing up to cast their vote seem to indicate that they have trust in their leaders they elect. On one scale, you have countries like Belgium , Sweden and South Korea while on the opposite scale are countries like UK (63%) and USA (55.7%). Got to mention that USA 2020 election saw about 20 million more votes than 2016 that unanimously voted out Trump. Purely my observation. 

[Cake Monster 10788]

As the saying goes

" Not all the Lunatics are locked up in the Asylum"

[proton 818]

Odd they missed out Biden and other lefties, not one of them included

[spidermike007 54480]

I am not sure I would have used the term eccentric, which I normally consider to be an appealing quality. Who wants vanilla, anyway? Boring! 

 

Some of the people you named certainly qualify as emotionally stunted, dangerous, and bizarre. Eccentric seems like too much of a compliment for retrogrades like Bolsonaro, Putin, Kim, Prayuth and Trump. More like childish, power hungry, and diabolical in nature. 

[JonnyF 21556]

3 minutes ago, proton said:

Odd they missed out Biden and other lefties, not one of them included

Exactly. No mention of Ardern and Trudeau? Absolute Loons the pair of them.

 

Sturgeon? A Narcissist of the highest order.

[JetsetBkk 9044]

17 minutes ago, proton said:

Odd they missed out Biden and other lefties, not one of them included

Not odd at all - this place is full of lefties/democrats.

[JCauto 2420]

1 hour ago, Pedrogaz said:

and Trudeau....what can you say after his deplorable and illegal treatment of the trucking protest.

What you can say is that the majority of Canadians fully approved of the disposal of that trash. Hey, let's coopt your own rhetoric, since y'all tried to import dumbocracy Amurrican-style into a civilized social democracy - "Canada, love it or leave it!"

[blazes 5109]

38 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

The voter turnout is a good indication of the people disillusion with the quality of their politicians or the platforms they present. Countries that have above 75% of the voting age population showing up to cast their vote seem to indicate that they have trust in their leaders they elect. On one scale, you have countries like Belgium , Sweden and South Korea while on the opposite scale are countries like UK (63%) and USA (55.7%). Got to mention that USA 2020 election saw about 20 million more votes than 2016 that unanimously voted out Trump. Purely my observation. 

You forget to add that Trump had 10 million more votes than he had in 2016 against Mrs Clinton. 

[blazes 5109]

4 minutes ago, JCauto said:

What you can say is that the majority of Canadians fully approved of the disposal of that trash. Hey, let's coopt your own rhetoric, since y'all tried to import dumbocracy Amurrican-style into a civilized social democracy - "Canada, love it or leave it!"

The vile Trudeau would give his odd socks to have the approval ratings of Joe Biden (and we all know how high the latter are!).

[HaoleBoy 1277]

12 minutes ago, JetsetBkk said:

Not odd at all - this place is full of lefties/democrats.

Since you mention democrats you must come from the US and possibly in one of the fringe extremes.  These fringes are getting bigger (left and right) every day though ...

 

I would venture to say that most Dems / Repubs in the US are just left of center / right of center.  Not what you seem to allude to in your post ... 

[Eric Loh 22365]

50 minutes ago, proton said:

Odd they missed out Biden and other lefties, not one of them included

Good observation. Perhaps Trump and his eccentric colleagues set the bar too high. 

Edited May 20 by Eric Loh
wrong paragraph

[scorecard 23821]

29 minutes ago, JetsetBkk said:

Not odd at all - this place is full of lefties/democrats.

Good news, share the wealth, take care of each other...

[JetsetBkk 9044]

40 minutes ago, HaoleBoy said:

Since you mention democrats you must come from the US and possibly in one of the fringe extremes.  These fringes are getting bigger (left and right) every day though ...

 

I would venture to say that most Dems / Repubs in the US are just left of center / right of center.  Not what you seem to allude to in your post ... 

Wrong. I'm English. America is screwed. Biden is a brain-dead puppet. 

[JohnOFphon 628]

Maybe we will all be saved when a UFO materializes and gives us the answers on how to get along.

Hopefully their not carrying a cookbook...How To Serve Man...

[bendejo 8679]

5 hours ago, Excel said:

It maybe politically correct to call those leaders eccentric, but how about considering the millions of absolute loonies running around freely on this planet who actually voted them all in ? 

Worry not, soon to be a thing of the past in the US, at least.  It is being arranged that the electors of each state be chosen by their state governor, and I don't have to tell you which side is arranging it.  The choices of the general public will no longer matter.  "Y'know, these results don't look right, I'm re-assigning the electors" 

Marcos redux in the Philippines, ugh!

 

 

[Tony125 2481]

20 minutes ago, JohnOFphon said:

Maybe we will all be saved when a UFO materializes and gives us the answers on how to get along.

Hopefully their not carrying a cookbook...How To Serve Man...

I see yiu are a Twilight Zone follower , for others who don't get the reference "

 

[JCauto 2420]

5 hours ago, blazes said:

The vile Trudeau would give his odd socks to have the approval ratings of Joe Biden (and we all know how high the latter are!).

Don't see what makes him "vile", as you are one of the "fact-free" posters here, but one thing I'm pretty sure he has (which Biden unfortunately does not) is until October 2025 to win back his popularity. With the Conservatives trying to imitate the idiots to the South, he's practically assured another term simply because we're not extremists or fascists and Rupert Murdoch hasn't been able to poison our atmosphere with his lies. You should try living in a civilized country where you don't need a "concealed carry" license to feel safe and they're not trying to make women chattel again.

[HaoleBoy 1277]

5 hours ago, JetsetBkk said:

Wrong. I'm English. America is screwed. Biden is a brain-dead puppet. 

Why bring up "dems" if you're not from US?  I agree Biden is not worth much, but better than the last dimwit ...

 

England is any better with your bozo Johnson running things along with the Tories?

[herfiehandbag 9667]

8 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

I think that the quality of leadership, especially in the West, is deplorable. These are people not even qualified to run a lemonade stand. The EU is particularly bad, where there are not competent leaders and the unelected Commission are self serving and don't give a toss about the citizens they are supposed to serve. A senile idiot former in the US....and an overgrown lying toddler in the UK. Scott Morrison who just recently threatened to invade the Solomon Islands, who just did a deal with China he didn't like.....and Trudeau....what can you say after his deplorable and illegal treatment of the trucking protest.

Damn them all.

The, for you obviously unpalatable fact, is that all the national leaders you named are qualified for the jobs they hold, along with Messrs Biden and Marcos mentioned in previous posts. This is because the countries they lead are democracies ( of various sorts)  and their leaders have all been elected! In a democracy that is the only qualification.

 

[mikebike 4734]

8 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

like.....and Trudeau....what can you say after his deplorable and illegal treatment of the trucking protest.

Huh? Please elaborate on the illegality. I'm all ears.

[candide 14276]

Come on guys! Don't worry! There are still plenty of uneccentric and quite boring leaders!