Saturday, March 1, 2025

US Becomes The Bad Guys

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By now, you’ve seen the video, perhaps read the transcript, and heard different opinions. Yesterday’s argument between Ukraine’s President Zelensky and US President Shitforbrains, accompanied by VP Fuxacouch, was an unparalleled disaster the likes of which the US has never seen. Equally disturbing is the number of Republicans who somehow think that yesterday’s debacle was a good thing. Can someone please explain to me why no one is setting up guillotines on the White House lawn this morning?

Responses from Democrats is, predictably, in support of Ukraine. Here’s a few quotes via AP:

SENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER, New York:
“Trump and Vance are doing Putin’s dirty work. Senate Democrats will never stop fighting for freedom and democracy.”

HOUSE DEMOCRATIC LEADER HAKEEM JEFFRIES, New York:
“Today’s White House meeting with the President of Ukraine was appalling and will only serve to further embolden Vladimir Putin, a brutal dictator. The United States must not reward Russian aggression and continue to appease Putin.”

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut:
“My strong and passionate hope is that the talks can be resumed or restored, and this event won’t derail continued support.”

“I have very strong hopes that the coalition we have in Congress — and it is a very strong bipartisan coalition — will be persuasive to the administration and others that we have a long-term national security interest in Ukraine prevailing over Putin’s brazen aggression.”

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota:
“Answer to Vance: Zelenskyy has thanked our country over and over again both privately and publicly. And our country thanks HIM and the Ukrainian patriots who have stood up to a dictator, buried their own & stopped Putin from marching right into the rest of Europe. Shame on you.”

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY, Connecticut:
“It was a planned ambush designed to embarrass President Zelenskyy in order to benefit Vladimir Putin. That was an embarrassment. That was an abomination. What you watched was American power being destroyed in the world as everybody watches President Trump become a lapdog for a brutal dictator in Moscow.”

If you’re not embarrassed to be an American this morning, I’m going to assume that you are an orange cat with no working brain cells. The president’s behavior yesterday firmly puts the US in the category of Bad Guy, along with Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and, depending on the day, Turkey. If anyone is playing around with World War III, it’s the US President, not Zelensky. Zelensky knows war. Felonious Punk doesn’t have a fucking clue.

Making the embrassment even worse, somehow a correspondent for TASS, a Russian state media organization, was among a group of hand-picked pool reporters present in the Oval Office. What the fuck? The Associated Press, a US organization, can’t be in the room but TASS, the official Russian mouthpiece, can? The reporter was later removed from the room, but only after other reporters questioned their presence.

Fortunately, Europe seems to have found a spine and strongly voiced their support for Ukraine and Zelensky. UK Prime Minister KerirStarmer’s office responded, “He retains unwavering support for Ukraine, and is doing all he can to find a path forward to a lasting peace based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine.”

Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni, however, proposed “an immediate summit” between the United States and European allies “to speak frankly about how we intend to face today’s great challenges, starting with Ukraine.” She urged the West to stay united.

“Every division of the West makes us all weaker and favors those who would like to see the decline of our civilization,” she said. “A division would not benefit anyone.”

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted directly to Selensky, “your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You are never alone, dear President.”

And Friedrich Merz, Germany’s likely next chancellor, wrote: “Dear Volodymyr @zelenskyyua, we stand with #Ukraine in good and in testing times. We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war.”

Meanwhile in Estonia, which borders Russia, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said the only obstacle to peace is Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘s decision to continue the war.

“It is time for Europe to step up,” Tsahkna said in a statement. “We do not need to wait for something else to happen; Europe has enough resources, including Russia’s frozen assets, to enable Ukraine to continue fighting.”

And Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s reminded Ukraine of what’s at stake for the Nordic and Baltic countries, and others, if Russia’s aggression spreads.

“You are not only fighting for your freedom but also for all of Europe’s,” Kristersson wrote on X. European officials from Austria, he Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Spain, among others, also offered their support to Ukraine. 

There’s an uncomfortable problem here, though. Yesterday’s move makes it look likely that the US could exit from membership in NATO. If we do, can the EU sufficiently defend Ukraine and itself from Russia? Ukraine is Europe’s largest military and we see how they’re faring. The next largest is France, which is four time smaller than Ukraine’s. While the UK likes to talk big, they have only a fraction of the troops they did during WWII.

See the problem?

Meanwhile, U.S. Social Security Administration cut 7,000 workers. If you’re one of many looking for or depending upon social security income, you’re screwed.

Democratic appropriators say Republicans have left US government funding talks, raising the risk of a shutdown. We already know that the GOP wants to gut the entire budget, with the exception of defense. They’re planning for war.

Impeachment threats to federal judges are increasing. This is nothing short of intimidation and it’s illegal. The fact that members of Congress are getting in on the act now is enough to have them removed, but I don’t see anyone raising that issue.

Another “list five things” email is hitting federal employees again this morning. The difference this time is that those working on classified projects were instructed to put “all of my activities are sensitive” in their email. That doesn’t make the move any less illegal.

The stock market didn’t do so well this past week and there’s growing concern of a major selloff. If the market completely tanks, large-scale layoffs will hit almost immediately. Many companies have already started.

Thomas L. Friedman writes, “This Has Never Happened With an American President Before” and James Carville is screaming that it’s time for Democrats to make a daring move. I’m not sure anyone in power is actually paying attention, though.

Ugh.

This will be the last Morning Update. I’m taking tomorrow off to work on the new site. Sunday is usually slow news/low readership anyway. When Monday hits, we’ll be over on clight.us. The content may be lean for a couple of days as we ramp up, but I think it will ultimately be a more efficient and complete way of addressing all the issues we’re facing.

We’ll also be asking for your support. I’m already -$200 in my bank account and there are still bills to pay. With social security taking a dump, we don’t have a lot of options.

We’ll post here again when/if we have more pictures or if we have something of a personal nature we need to share. Thank you for hanging with us through all the chemo. Let’s hope we never need to do that again.

All my love,
-Charles