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

My polider (political+spider) senses are beginning to tingle.

 Promises are being ignored in the name of political expediency. The last administration used the same "justification."

During the campaign, a variety of pledges were made. Among those were the release of the Epstein List (which certainly does exist) the removal of all illegal aliens (which the majority of the entirety of this country supports) and ending military aid to Ukraine (which I have vociferously opposed on these very pages)

Among other promises.

Here's the reality as I see it: on the matter of illegal aliens, we either want to end the problem, or not.

Like pregnancy, one either is, or one isn't. There's zero middle ground.

There cannot successfully be a carve out for illegal farm workers.

We cannot, as a country, begin to classify illegals based on the illegal hirings by companies breaking federal law to reduce prices.


Hiring an illegal for any job violates federal law. 8 U.S. Code § 1324a - Unlawful employment of aliens and 8 U.S. Code § 1324 - Bringing in and harboring certain aliens is specific in that regard.

If the United States is to ever end, or at least severely curtail the illegal alien issue, then the elimination of the illegal alien destination resort we've built must be Job 2 after Job 1, locking down the Border.

That resort includes the waste of hundreds of billions of dollars spent by government and paid for by US, that continues to draw illegals like flies to honey.

To permanently control the influx of illegals, every effort should be made to eliminate any reason they would come here to begin with. At the top of this list, second only to the massive waste of billions on illegal alien welfare programs, is a "job." or any variety of employment.

Trump's development of a carve out is a "camel's nose under the tent flap" approach to governance. Any such program, rule or law will always, ALWAYS result in a gradual mission creep as OTHER illegals are added to some sort of "critical" job set.

It will become a justification for the left to defend ALL illegal alien/open border policies as the merely point to what appears to be an exception for "some," but not for all. It's a matter of time before an increasing number of job classifications would be added to such a list of illegal alien employers to justify their continued exploitation of those who have zero legal right to have ever set foot in to this country.

And yes, I have noticed the reality that to date, illegals are arrested/deported while those hiring them suffer no apparent ill-consequence of any kind.

What kind of message is that sending to employers who's business model depends on the illegal hiring of illegal aliens?

Ending the issue of open borders, illegal aliens and criminal activities they engage in was one of the biggest platform planks Trump used to get elected. As were the release of Epstein List, which this nation's attorney general claimed at one point was "sitting on her desk", as well as the ending of aid to Ukraine (which, I reiterate, I STRONGLY oppose)

Tap dancing on this issue for ANY reason is unacceptable. It's handing the left a major wedge issue, it's short sighted and while Trump abhors the "amnesty" term in reference to this select group, at base, it appears that no other noun seems to cover the root action.

Amnesty: the act of an authority (such as a government) by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals.

What other term applies? People are watching. And people are noticing. And many are getting pissed.

Immigration, Epstein, Ukraine: Trump’s moves roil MAGA base

Thoughts on Trump and Ukraine: not what you might expect.

Here's the reality:

Let me say at the outset I am anything but a leftist. An almost rabid Trump supporter, particularly given the alternative.

But in this case, the right is wrong.

Dead wrong.

Putin has repeatedly stated words to the effect that he wants to regrow the Warsaw Pact countries under his control.

At this point, at least 4 countries (Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) are all former Warsaw Pact countries. And now?

They’re all NATO countries.

Abandonment of Ukraine, a country we swindled into giving their nukes to Russia in return for guarantees of their continuing sovereignty; an agreement, come to think of it, that Russia also signed (See Budapest Memo for details) would provide Russia with a major strategic advantage on their way to realizing Putin’s dream.

As a former Army officer who spent 6 years in the region, 3+ in Recon, Russia’s total occupation (or even partial occupation, which is essentially what’s advocated in the Trump peace plan) is a recipe for disaster.

Historically, appeasement of dictators, i.e., allowing Russia to keep the approximately 1/3^rd of Ukraine, including the Crimea, they currently occupy, sends exactly the wrong message to Putin, et al.

Let’s remember, RUSSIA INVADED UKRAINE at Biden’s request (when Biden PUBLICLY announced we would not commit US military forces on the ground that was tantamount to an open invitation to invade, which a grateful Putin was happy to accept) and not the other way around. And now?

Trump and his supporters on this issue want a “peace deal” that will reward Putin for it.

Meanwhile, Putin gets away with 10's of thousands of murders, 10's of thousands of war crimes, thousands of rapes, hundreds of billions in damages, 1/3rd of a country he invaded to destroy and the sure and certain knowledge that the US is his bitch.

You know... the same things we hung nazi leadership for?

Why DJT is getting played like this is beyond me.

Clearly, "never again" ended in 2022.

Look at a map. See the strategic position Ukraine has.

Going through with this will merely give Putin time to reorganize, rearm and retrain.

And when he invades Poland through Belarus? Then what?

Do we blow off NATO?

OF COURSE NATO should shoulder a great deal more of the burden. But nature and politics both abhors a vacuum and if we create such a vacuum, someone we may not like WILL fill it.

Many who want to hang Ukraine out to dry would love that as well, wrongly believing isolationism, as we also practiced in the 30s last century (and how’d that work out for us?) is the way to go. Many, militarily and historically ignorant, wrongly believe that THIS time, Neville Chamberlains “Peace in our time” approach will somehow work.

But is this where I point out that 11 months after he waved that piece of paper around, Germany invaded Poland? Or that Germany partitioned Poland with Russia, so they had a roughly 50/50 take of the spoils?

With Biden’s moronic PUBLIC proclamation that the US would stay out of it, that made it simply too much of an opportunity for Putin to ignore. (I’m not suggesting that was the wrong policy. I’m suggesting that TELLING HIM PUBLICLY what we would do in advance of an invasion effectively green-lighted said invasion) effectively, we broke it.

We own it.

Putin understands that America has a history of abandonment of allies when it takes too long or is considered to be too much of a burden for this country. He knew, like any enemy of the US knows, that if they just hang on long enough, we’ll declare some sort of victory and go home, even when, in places like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, it turned into a an ignominious defeat.

Let’s face it: the reality is most on the right want Ukraine sold out because the aid situation to Ukraine was a Biden policy and far too many believe that since he started giving Ukraine aid, it MUST be wrong.

Well, even a broken clock is right twice a day. And in this case, the money he spent has resulted in a great many dead Russians that we will not have to kill.

I oppose this effort to check a box on the campaign promise list. Peace in Ukraine is a wonderful goal. But I GUARANTEE, based on historical experience that any peace achieved will merely be temporary.

Putin wants to turn all of Ukraine into the same serfdom Hitler wanted it for: agriculture and rare minerals.

Selling out Ukraine in a bogus “land for peace” scam won’t work any better in there than it did in Gaza. Appeasing dictators NEVER works for long, and you damned well know it.

Insanity has many definitions. One of them is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different outcome. Sadly, this is Trump doing that.

I support Trump in most everything he does and is doing. But abandoning NATO and Ukraine is not the answer, any more than abandoning 1/3^rd of the United States to any invader would be the answer.

I urge anyone concerned with that situation to step back, leave their emotion and politics out of it, and look at the reality and strategic issues confronting us with a Russian dominated Ukraine.

What, for example, would be the situation if we had allowed Axis forces to keep 1/3^rd of the areas THEY conquered in World War Two in exchange for “peace?” What would have been the outcome if those we held accountable for their war crimes after VJ day in Nuremberg and Japan had, instead, been allowed to remain in power?  You know, in return for peace?

I shudder to think.

Many of us on the right blame Ukraine aid as a reason other needs within the US have gone unfulfilled. I disagree.

The border was a sieve because of policy, not money. Homelessness is horrific because the homeless are never held accountable for their decisions…. And we’ve wasted billions on the homeless with little to nothing to show for it, except for a voracious homelessness industry that is wasting horrific amounts of money for an ever worsening homelessness problem. And for the most part, the homeless ARE homeless because of the decisions they made that led up to that outcome. Public school education sucks for a wide variety of reasons that boil down to POLICY where pathetic academic outcomes are allowed, if not encouraged. (There’s a reason where we spend the most money per student but get the worst academic outcomes in the industrialized world, and money has nothing to do with it.)

For me, the question is what would be measurably and positively different in the US today if we’d never heard of Ukraine?

You know and I know, the answer is nothing.

So yeah, let’s abandon Ukraine. Let’s allow Putin to get away with the same crimes we hung nazi and Japanese war criminals for. Let’s reward this guy for the death, the rape, the murder, the destruction and his OWN war crimes as we then get to pay even MORE money to repair what Putin blew up because you know damned well there will never be any kind of reparations.

American volunteers have fought and died in Ukraine.  And if I could?

I’d be there fighting with them. But there’s little need for disabled veterans 69 years old. Knowledge notwithstanding, I’d be more of a hindrance than a help.

As I said, I support Trump. I’m never going to be a single-interest voter.

But he’s a man, not a god. And as a man he’s capable of making mistakes like any other man. And I seriously hope he doesn’t go through with this one.

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