It's alleged that Trump is telling Zelensky what to wear at their next meeting

Sorry, but I can't see where Zelensky's clothing makes any difference. During WW2, for example, Stalin didn't wear a suit. Did he get beat up for it?

Don't confuse your hatred of Zelensky who is fighting for the survival of his county with the trappings of office as you perceive them.

Selling Ukraine out.... again.... will not work now any more than it worked when Chamberlain sold out Czechoslovakia to Germany with Hitler.

We signed an agreement guaranteeing Ukraine's sovereignty, as did Russia, back in '94 in return for Ukraine getting rid of its 700 or so nukes... which, had they ignored us and kept them, would have stopped any invasion to begin with.

Russia has repeatedly ignored that agreement as they will repeatedly ignore any agreement Trump gets now. After all, what would Trump do about it? Increase sanctions Putin never cared about in the first place?

Any ceasefire now will allow Putin to rearm, retrain and reorganize. He will then attack at his leisure.

Trump is getting played like a fiddle. Appeasing dictators such as Putin only emboldens them and reinforces the historical fact that militarily and economically, whenever the US gets involved, at some point we'll walk away. Vietnam, Afghanistan and in other places, to name a couple.

The world is watching and shaking their head at our continued ignorance.

And most here don't care what happens as long as we're not involved... a copy of the pre-World War Two stance of many. And how'd that work out for us?

But we'll care when Russia engages in Putin's avowed aim to restore the Warsaw Pact countries under his control, including current NATO countries, triggering World War 3.

Much of the blood you'll see on the ground then will be American.

And, like in WW2, we'll start playing the "if only we had" game.

At Nuremberg, we hung Nazi leaders for most of the same things Putin has done with this invasion. At least 100,000 war crimes. Billions in damages.

And he won't be held accountable for any of it. Who'll pay for it? It should be Putin. But you already know we'll be on the hook for rebuilding something Putin will then destroy again when he feels like it.

Now, we'll reward him and send an entirely different message to dictators and dictator-wannabes.

And Zelensky’s wardrobe won't make any damned difference.

"Never Again" ended in February of 2022. And what we've done about it to date is the equivalence of a fender-bender compared to an "eight-killed-in-the-intersection" car wreck when Trump gets his way.

It's just a matter of time. And time will be on Putin's side.

Ukraine seems to be another Chech World War Two style sell-out.

Trump and Putin to Hold Joint Press Conference After Alaska Summit - WSJ

Once again, it's becoming clearer and clearer that Putin-Trump is a replay of Chamberlain-Hitler (the disaster of "peace in our time.")

Russia's pressure, regardless of any agreement they may sell out Ukraine with, will be unrelenting.

Guided by recent, post-Korean War American history of, essentially, becoming tired of "foreign entanglements," our presence there will gradually become weaker while Putin's will become increasingly stronger.

At the end of World War 2, most of the war criminals were hunted down and executed. If this is to become the "end" of the Ukraine invasion, the contrasting outcome will become impossible to overlook.

I have been warning against rewarding Putin with any tangible gain from his massacre. Tens of thousands of unpunished war crimes of every imaginable description? No problem. As if they didn't exist.

Billions in damages caused directly by Putin? Who's going to pick up the tab for that? (Hint: it won't be Vlad)

And, of course, Vlad will require a complete lifting of any of the nonsensical sanctions against the former Soviet Union. (I've always known (and have repeatedly stated) that the sanctions Biden imposed would have zero impact on the outcomes in Ukraine: those in power wouldn't notice them. Those who lost yachts, businesses and bank accounts will either get them back or be 'adequately' compensated for their temporary discomfort. Bank accounts will be unfrozen.)

What's the catch phrase of the company that fixes damages to homes and businesses hit by fire or flooding?

"Like it never even happened."

The civilians Vlad slaughtered will remain dead. The women and children victimized by his Armies will remain sexually violated. The buildings and homes destroyed will remain wrecked until the West (including the US) starts writing checks.

Rewarding the 21st Century's REAL version of Hitler (unlike the delusional leftist version that blew up in the left's face last November) for slaughter, maiming, rape, robbery and destruction will be, if not THE biggest mistake of this century, among the top 2.

It will embolden him. It will embolden Xi. America will do what it's always done since the Korean War: Get tired of the hassle and go home.

Putin will take the opportunity to rearm, retrain and rebuild his military, now weaker than they've ever been since World War Two. He'll turn the Black Sea into a Russian lake.

And having done that, he will (not "might," WILL) begin to invade neighboring countries, including NATO countries, because, why shouldn't he? WE won't do anything about it... and his violations of international law and human rights that leftist claim to be so concerned about will go out the window.

Again.

Past, it has been said, is prologue. It is clear that in this matter of foreign policy; few (if any) of the people around Trump or his SecState, Rubio, are pointing out this reality.

Dividing up Ukraine smacks of dividing up Poland, which, come to think of it, was divided up WITH the then Soviet Union.

That, effectively, is what seems to be about to happen here. And how did that work out for everyone involved, not least of all, the Poles?

Another classic example of "penny wise... pound foolish."

Rewarding dictators for invading doesn't quite send the message that needs to be sent. It's the equivalent of freeing a convicted murder-robbery convict and giving them the money they stole in the process.

This isn't rocket science. An "agreement" with Putin makes as much senses as past nuclear weapon agreements with Iran.

And the most painful part of this is: the people in charge KNOW ALL OF THIS.

And they're going to do it anyway.

Trump and Putin to Hold Joint Press Conference After Alaska Summit - WSJ

In Flanders Field

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

    Between the crosses, row on row,

   That mark our place; and in the sky

   The larks, still bravely singing, fly

    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

We are the Dead.

Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

   Loved and were loved, and now we lie

    In Flanders fields.

 

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

   The torch; be yours to hold it high.

   If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

    In Flanders fields.

LTC John McCrae, MD and Artillery  in the Canadian Expeditionary Force

Trump is getting played on Ukraine: appeasement is never the answer.

For many political junkies, the last year of watching the left melt down under the weight of their sheer incompetence and political stupidity have been complete theater. Comedic does adequately cover it.

Today, I’m looking around and by and large, I’m happy with the actions that have taken place, particularly since November.

But my spider sense has begun to tingle a bit…. Over Ukraine.

Generally, those on the right have been condemning US support for Ukraine, post-Russian invasion. I’ve been seeing it, repeatedly, since the first aid package went out. 

For example, President Trump blamed Ukraine for the invasion.

Yup.  That’s right. It’s all Ukraine’s fault.

Much like rape victim is at fault for being raped.

Here’s the reality: Ukraine was invaded because Biden stupidly (and publicly) announced that US ground forces would not be committed to Ukraine’s defense.

Now we have an obligation to that defense. People may not like it, but it’s true.

With the end of the Soviet Union, Ukraine found itself a nuclear power. As I recall, approximately 700 nuclear warheads were left in Ukrainian hands when the USSR dissolved.

In return for various promises and small amounts of funding (small being a relative term) Ukraine agreed to give up the entirety of their newly acquired nuclear arsenal.

Among these promises was an agreement by the parties… the US, Russia and the UK… to respect the signatory's independence and sovereignty in the existing borders (in accordance with the principles of the CSCE Final Act).

The agreement has twice been ignored: first during the Crimean incursion under Obama and now, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It’s understandable, if not justifiable, for Russia to invade Ukraine, given the obvious foreign policy stupidity of Obama and Biden: cowardice is never a good look, yet that’s exactly what the United States was projecting in their dealings with Putin… then… and sadly, now.

Putin has publicly stated that he intends to resuscitate the Warsaw Pact and place it under Russian control, ala the Cold War years.

While Ukraine has not been a NATO member but were, in fact, part of the Warsaw Pact, there are several members of NATO who were also Warsaw Pact members.

These include Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, which became NATO members in 1999. Additionally, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined NATO shortly before the 2004 Istanbul summit. Albania and Croatia joined on April 1, 2009, before the 2009 Strasbourg–Kehl summit. Montenegro and North Macedonia.

It’s likely that these former Soviet vassals would not willingly return to the Putin Fold, so to speak. He is well aware of that fact, but with his invasion of Ukraine, he’s shown a willingness to ignore agreements whenever it suits him.

So, in Trump’s efforts to sell out Ukraine, we have a situation almost in lockstep with the sellout of what was then Czechoslovakia, the Munich Agreement of 1938, where then UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was wont to say “I believe we have peace in our time,” or some such short-sighted babble.

Eleven months later, Hitler invaded Poland. And the rest, as they say, is history.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waving an utterly worthless piece of paper around, declaring that he "believe it is peace for our time."

There can be only one outcome to the Russo-Ukraine war that will result in any lasting peace.

Russia must be treated the exact, same, way that Germany was treated at the end of World War Two.

There can be no permanent peace in the region unless Putin and his minions, along with those who committed atrocities in Ukraine, are directly held accountable for their actions in this matter.

That includes reparations both to the Ukraine and the other countries, including the US, who funded Ukraine’s defense.

Hundreds of billions in damages and costs.

Russian leadership must be put on trial.  Russian soldiers and civilians who committed any of the tens of thousands of war crimes in that country must be held accountable for their actions.

And none of that will happen.

Like Czechoslovakia, Ukraine is being ignored in the negotiating process. Like Hitler in ‘38, Putin knows any agreement is worthless, that rewarding him for his invasion and slaughter of Ukrainian civilians with the permanent annexation of roughly 1/3^rd of the country is but a temporary sideshow to his bigger plan of reestablishing the Warsaw Pact.

Imagine the ending of the World War requiring the continuation of the Nazi control of Germany and the lands they conquered at the end of the war, and the Japanese war mongers continuing control of Japan and the lands still in their control at the end of the war?

No war crimes trials. No accountability. No punishment of any kind. Nothing. What kind of message will letting Putin off the hook send?

What’s the difference?

The lesson this teaches Russia is the same lesson the US has taught the rest of the world since 1953:

No matter what the US says, no matter how many are killed or maimed, no matter how much damage is done, no matter who started it, no matter how much we’ve spent…

At some point, the United States will cave because our word is as worthless as Putin’s.

This so-called peace deal appears to be nothing but a box checked on a campaign promise list. It’s as worthless as the US response to the invasion itself (Anyone with a functioning brain knew that these so-called sanctions wouldn't make any difference where it mattered: on the battlefield.) and besides rewarding Putin for his invasion, it will give his military time to reorganize, retrain and resupply.

And then what?

When the time comes to meet our NATO commitments as Putin invades some other country who happens to be a NATO member, do we ignore our agreements there as well?  What other parts of Europe will we negotiate away?

In an alternative universe, how much of the United States would we give away to attain “peace in our time?”

Where is the line? What do we do when it’s crossed? Why WOULDN’T Putin invade a NATO country?  After all, he wasn’t held responsible for his Ukraine invasion, why would he not continue with his expansionist plans to take over the eastern third of Europe, his ultimate goal? Apparently, he has absolutely nothing to lose.

How does selling out Ukraine impact that in the least?

Hating support for Ukraine that we’ve paid for because it came from Biden ignores the practical and strategic realities in the region. But let’s all remember as President Trump constantly reminds us the invasion of Ukraine would not have happened had he been in office.

Had we publicly announced US support of Ukraine in terms of defending them… this invasion never would have happened under Biden, either. But leftists generally lack the needed courage to stare bullies down. To publicly announce we wouldn’t do that gave Putin the open invitation he was looking for and he took it.

And now, I would appear that President Trump is compounding that mistake in Chambelainesque ways that will make Churchill spin in his crypt.

We’ve spent a lot of money in Ukraine. And Ukraine has spent a lot of blood.

If Putin is not contained and held accountable in Ukraine now?

What we’ll have to spend in terms of blood and treasure in the future will make this look like a middle school candy fundraiser in comparison. And we WILL have to spend it.

Appeasement as a foreign policy plank was a disaster in 1938.

It’s no less a disaster today. But that is what President Trump seems to be advocating.

Will it be worth the enslavement and slaughter of thousands to check a box on a campaign promise list for the media victory lap?

I, for one, don’t believe that this is the course he should… or needs… to take.

Trump snaps back at Zelenskyy, blaming Ukraine for the war

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-snaps-back-at-zelenskyy-blaming-ukraine-for-the-war/ar-AA1zjrKU

In Flander's Field

   In Flanders fields the poppies blow

    Between the crosses, row on row,

   That mark our place; and in the sky

   The larks, still bravely singing, fly

    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

We are the Dead.

Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

   Loved and were loved, and now we lie

    In Flanders fields.

 

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

   The torch; be yours to hold it high.

   If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

    In Flanders fields.

LTC John McCrae, MD and Artillery  in the Canadian Expeditionary Force

So. The US is heading towards a cliff. And where's our focus? The PR firm of Taylor and Travis.

Let me say at the outset that I care about... and for... celebrities'... precisely as much as they care about and for me.

And the reader knows that none of them give damn one about me.

In the Bread and Circuses world we've become, almost the entirety of this country's attention is glued to Taylor and Travis. Those who have their attention elsewhere and , like me, suggest that out time is better spent outside of that well-panned and media-fostered black hole are accused of "attacking" (mostly) Taylor Swift for one reason and one reason only: She is a she.

We're told to shut up if we don't go along with this cleverly managed flavor of the week who has been elevated to the level of "God's Gift To Entertainment." As a male, I'm frequently attacked for my views concerning women's issues. Speaking your mind results in efforts to be silenced, ridiculed, misinterpreted and, at least on one occasion, local media's efforts to cancel me.

Well, I'm reminded of two of the hallmarks of this particular blog that I try to live by. They're on the right of this screen but they're also imprinted on my heart:

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

George Orwell, author of 1984

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Dr. Martin Luther King

Our total inability to focus on things that matter, regardless of how unpleasant those things may be, results in this country being manipulated, being lied to and being put at risk.

The major issues confronting us are ignored. No one is ever held accountable for the damage inflicted and the deaths caused. Criminals are allowed to roam free. Homelessness is the worst it's ever been. Drug importation and use has literally wound up costing the deaths of 10's of thousands of lives. Crime rates continue to explode and murder rates set records. Public schools are a slow motion train wreck with mainly utterly horrific academic outcomes while schools focus on inculcating children with leftist tropes while they do all they can to mainstream the permanent sterilization, butchering and mutilation of children who can't get tattoos, can't enter in to contracts, can't own property and in many cases, can't even drive a car.

I refuse to respond to celebrity. I refuse to do anything because someone I've seen on a TV or movie screen tells me to do so.

Because here's the reality.

Americans do not WANT to think.

As a country, the people here are TOLD what and how to think and God Help those wise enough to throw off the shackles of societal expectations and political correctness to think for themselves.

Celebrities have an inordinate amount of power in forming/shaping opinion in this country, power I simply do not understand.

When a celebrity speaks? The entire world is required to listen.

How many times, for example, have we seen media on Bill Gates?

No so much for what he's done or doing, but instead for what he's saying?

I grant Gates' expertise in the field of computing. I freely acknowledge, unlike either Taylor or Travis, that Gates' company has built, perhaps, the single most impactful product the world has ever known: the Personal Computer.

But what knowledge or expertise is he imbued with beyond that?

How does that make him, or any other celebrity, an expert on anything?

I've frequently stated that my Spaniel knows more about politics than he does, yet, because of WHO HE IS, lack of qualifications or experience aside, we're expected to listen to him.

Or LeBron who knows how to play game but who knows nothing about the mechanics of government, or foreign policy, or law, or any number of things that make up the fabric of this country.

But because he's a celebrity, what he says frequently gets more attention than the president.

Who he hates, what he thinks, what he eats or drinks... all of those things are SUPPOSED to be important.

Why?

Meanwhile, as the title says, this country is beginning to sprint towards the edge of the cliff.

A $34 trillion debt. (Estimates are we'll be paying $700 billion in interest alone this year) All of the issues previously mentioned. A great many countries who seriously want us destroyed. A divide of leftist hate. A border that can't even really be called a border any more since it bears little resemblance to such a thing.

Our troops are getting killed. Countries around the world successfully play us for suckers. Terrorist supporters infest Congress. The dual tier of something called "justice" is screaming, Corruption at almost every level runs rampant. 

Post attack photo of of the Army post in Jordan

And where's the focus?

On a singer and a football player.

A few days ago after the attack on our forces in Jordan that killed 3 and maimed 40, I pointed out that neither of these people know the names of or care about any of them.

Our 3 soldiers killed in Jordan - Sgt William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia; Spc Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia, and Spc Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia.

Neither of these people, Taylor or Travis, know the names of nor care about any of the men and women slaughtered in Kabul towards the end of the horrific and ignominious (and cowardly) withdrawal from Afghanistan.

America is blissfully (and deliberately, as it turns out) quite unaware of the world around them.

And the people of this country wouldn't have it any other way.

After all, there's celebrities to worship. And we can't let anything interfere with that, can we?

Obama invites non-nuclear weapons of mass destruction attack, plus double miles if they use American Express.

.
Time and time again, our president has proven himself to be a clueless idiot in almost every area of both foreign and domestic policy.

Yesterday, he effectively sent out an invitation for those who would destroy us to come on in and do it.

For some not paying attention, that sounds a bit over-the-top. But one of the main reasons this country has been mostly safe from these attacks has been, I believe, our overwhelming nuclear deterrence.

And much of that deterrence was taken off the table yesterday by the ACORN-in-Chief, who even after all these months STILL doesn't get that most nations around the world will only respect strength instead of weakness.

So, this simple moron announced to the world yesterday that only SOME efforts to destroy this country and our 330,000,000 people qualify for nuclear attack response.

From the fringe left paper of record, the New York Times:

For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use
nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with
biological or chemical weapons or launched a crippling cyberattack.

With a little editing, this is what that paragraph REALLY means:

For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing to encourage our
enemies to attack us if the attack is launched from nonnuclear states that
are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if they
attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons or launched a
crippling cyberattack.

So, using the scenario of the Tom Clancy books "Executive Orders and "Rainbow 6," some country paying lip service to a piece of paper that doesn't even involve biological, chemical or internet attacks (and face it, Chinese hackers have been coming after us for years without any known retaliation of any kind) can feel free from the fear of the past penalties that could be invoked for using non-nuclear weapons of mass-destruction.

What's a few tens of millions of casualties and the crippling of this country to this moron?

Based on his most recent babble, it ain't much. And I'm just giddy at the prospects that those who would destroy us view this most recent collapse of common sense as precisely the kind of gesture from this empty suit that will make us weaker... while making them stronger.

Aren't you?
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