“War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.” — George Orwell, “1984”
C.S. Lewis wrote about the concept of “universal morality.” The essence of that was that people have an innate moral compass. They know the difference between right and wrong. Their gut tells them. And it’s not just people. Even the animal kingdom knows what’s right and wrong, and they’ll move to help one another. I used to collect videos of animals helping other animals. I had one of a dog nudging a tortoise that was flipped on its back over to its feet again. I had one where a bear took a bird with a broken wing out of a pond that it couldn’t leave on its own and my favorite was of two lions coming to the aid of an injured lion when the jackals started to circle. Nature knows. And people know.
That has been proven this week as worldwide support for Ukraine occurs. They see the Russian bully entering the sovereign state without provocation or justification and they’re outraged en masse. Here’s what that looks like.
This is Prague.
Václavák právě teď. ???? pic.twitter.com/QwITNvSnnf
— Lukas Biba (@bibalukas) February 27, 2022
This is Berlin.
And this is Berlin. We are All with Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/09MOikyWi6
— Sebastian L. ?? (@le_seb_) February 27, 2022
Even Switzerland has sanctioned Ukraine, breaking its vow of neutrality for the first time in history, that is how egregious this issue is.
Fox News has already begun to pivot, and the Republican party in this country, which has gone out of its way to love them some Putin is in the process of a pivot. Here’s where they were before.
In May 2021, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz shared Russian propaganda that attacked the U.S. military for being “woke” and “emasculated.” The video originated from a far-right, pro-Russian, anti-US media network. As Ukraine was invaded, Cruz blamed President Joe Biden for Putin’s desire to re-establish the Soviet empire.
Then came Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) who dismissed the importance of Ukraine in the global scheme of things, noting that they are the real threat to the United States.
“I would describe my own foreign policy views as nationalist, and that means we shouldn’t be trying to build a liberal empire abroad, we shouldn’t be trying to be the world’s policemen, we need to act what’s in the best interest of America’s national security, economic security,” said the Republican, who then claimed the U.S. should focus more on China than the war in Ukraine. That’s “the leading threat.”
Here’s the word coming down from Mango Mussolini that it’s now time for the Great Republican Pivot to take place. Donald Trump is taking credit for NATO.
Trump, who discussed pulling the US from NATO takes credit for NATO’s existence in a new statement. Trump, who threatened to withhold weapons funding from Ukraine to get dirt on Biden, takes credit for Ukrainian weapons in same statement. pic.twitter.com/OvyorRtHmh
— Sam Stein (@samstein) February 28, 2022
Trump has every intention in the world of destroying NATO.
From the book, “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year.”
In fact, Trump had privately indicated that he would seek to withdraw from NATO and to blow up the U.S. alliance with South Korea, should he win reelection. When those alliances had come up in meetings with Esper and other top aides, some advisers warned Trump that shredding them before the election would be politically dangerous.
“Yeah, the second term,” Trump had said. “We’ll do it in the second term.”
Here’s a flashback, via the NYT:
WASHINGTON — There are few things that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia desires more than the weakening of NATO, the military alliance among the United States, Europe and Canada that has deterred Soviet and Russian aggression for 70 years.
Last year, President Trump suggested a move tantamount to destroying NATO: the withdrawal of the United States.
Senior administration officials told The New York Times that several times over the course of 2018, Mr. Trump privately said he wanted to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Current and former officials who support the alliance said they feared Mr. Trump could return to his threat as allied military spending continued to lag behind the goals the president had set.
It’s Orwellian. It is absotively, posolutely Orwellian. There is no other way to call this shot.
So now what you’re going to see is the Great Reset, the Great Republican Pivot, because they have all conveniently forgotten what Trump really did vis a vis Ukraine. A brief sroll down memory lane is in orde. Amanda Carpenter, the Bulwark:
It’s worth remembering now, as so many Republicans pin “Stand with Ukraine” images to their profiles, how little most of them cared when Donald Trump withheld critical military assistance from the country in 2019 as he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do his political dirty work.
At the time, Trump’s bold attempt to get Zelensky to announce sham investigations into the Biden family and 2016 conspiracy theories were primarily viewed as a domestic affront. But the sight of Russian rockets raining down on Kyiv this week was a reminder that this obscene “drug deal” had real-world consequences. At the center of the Ukrainian scandal was a sickening truth: Trump did not see the Ukrainians as the heroes we see today; he saw them as pawns to be used for his benefit.
When Zelensky spoke with Trump in that “perfect” 2019 phone call, the newly-elected 44-year old Ukrainian President didn’t want much. Just two things: the military aid Congress had already approved and a White House meeting to show the world that America stood with Ukraine against Russian aggression. Both would have been so easy to give. But Trump never gives anything unless he gets his beak wet, so he tried to use his leverage over the Ukrainian people to coerce Zelensky into doing him a favor.
Trump didn’t care about the people of Ukraine—their lives or their democracy. He simply understood that he had power over them and could abuse this power to help his re-election.
And his fellow Republicans, almost to a person, either helped him with this blackmail or defended it once it came to light.
And there’s more. You probably remember these shenanigans that led to Impeachment I.
Vice President Pence was supposed to attend Zelensky’s inauguration but Trump sent his “three amigos”—Energy Secretary Rick Perry, European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland, and Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker instead. They returned with a favorable impression of Zelensky and advocated for the White House meeting that Zelensky wanted. Trump told them to “talk to Rudy.”
Why would high-level government officials have to talk to someone outside the government about their recommendations to the president? Because people in Trump’s circle came to understand that Giuliani was coordinating Trump’s Ukraine policy, which caused a rift with National Security Ambassador John Bolton who later described Giuliani as a “hand grenade that was going to blow everyone up.”
And here’s where it gets comical or pathetic, take your pick, considering the fact that now Trump is playing big shot for arming Ukraine.
The readout, which is not an official transcript, shows that when Zelensky mentioned his desire to “buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes,” Trump immediately replied with what he wanted.
“I would like you to do us a favor, though,” Trump said. Then, he mentioned a conspiracy theory about a Ukrainian server supposedly responsible for the 2016 election meddling instead of Russia. “I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people, and I would like you to get to the bottom of it,” Trump said.
Zelensky, perhaps diplomatically, said he was ready to begin a “new page on cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine.” He said he would meet with Giuliani if he came to Ukraine. He emphasized that the United States and Ukraine were “friends” many times.
Then, Trump turned to the Bidens. Zelensky said he could “look into the situation” and “I would kindly ask you if you have any additional information that you can provide to us, it would be very helpful for the investigation.” In other words: Show me what you have, and we’ll see.
Do for me and maybe I’ll do for you. But now Trump is peacocking about all he did for Ukraine, and even more ridiculously for NATO.
The week is getting off to an interesting start, I’ll say that much.
God knows what secrets he passed to putin to help him in his quest to rebuild the old soviet union. Anyone who wants to play nice with these child murderers can go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut. Take a look at that dead 6 year old girl blown up at the grocery store. Oh & don’t bother with ur PC crap,(not u Ursula).What fantasy dollhouse do u reside in if that is ur issue? THERE ARENT WORDS STRONG ENOUGH TO PROVOKE OUTRAGE!!! Of course 99% of u never put ur asses on the line to save democracy anyway. Keyboard soliders. Yeah. That’ll stop putin from blowing up little girls. Sure. No. It will be the literal sacrifice of men on the battlefield. (Check the military cemeteries if u think that is sexist). Fact.
I feel ya Scott. Donated to Jose Andres. Least I could do. Tha anger is palpable online. The treason of many. 45 is a malignant narcissist. He will take credit for a good shit in the morning if he can get publicity for it.
https://wck.org/
Donald, take a very long walk off a very short dock.
It’s too late to spin your way out of this, GOP. Your cultists are dumb but the rest of us are at least as smart as the Ukrainians.
I’ve got two GOP Senators (but a Democratic Representative) and one of them (Burr) is retiring and will be gone after the midterms so I didn’t bother contacting him. Tillis however I did reach out to. I asked the staffer who answered at his DC office what was his position on Ukraine. I got a “The Senator fully supports Ukraine and providing them humanitarian help and weapons” spiel. No hedging at all (which surprised me) in what I’m sure was a written text to respond to the question. No mention of any other GOP critters including Trump either. I said that it was good to hear, and then asked her a question to which she got flustered. I asked how the Senator squares his position now with his and other GOP Senators refusing to convict Trump on the impeachment charges for holding back weapons to Zelinsky and trying to extort him both to release the already approved one and buy more and trying to cover it all up? She didn’t know how to respond other than to give the standard “I’ll pass your comments along to the Senator” and I concluded with noting the tragedy of the lost lives and suffering taking place including conscripted Russian soldiers and that things should never have come to this. AND that it was on Trump. That it wasn’t Biden’s fault and any attempt to paint that picture was a lie. She remained flustered as she thanked me for calling and again saying my comments would be passed along to the Senator. They won’t of course, but I hope we Democrats flood GOP critters offices with such calls because if there are enough of them staffers will compare notes and it might have some indirect effect. Especially down the road because we need to shake their faith in the current version of the GOP and maybe get them to pay attention to their elders and as they rise up as staffers or even candidates themselves will be more traditional low taxes & less regulation assholes instead of what we have now.
I harassed those two traitors so badly they had the capital police call me on a bullshit excuse. I just reminded them that they are public servants & standing with traitor Trump & violating their oaths, they will not ever be able to hide. I reminded them that all their addresses are public record & traitors are never safe from the reckoning that inevitably comes. Anyway, it was a funny conversation with the police, who had to admit the only reason they were calling me was due to nervous senate staffs. They backed off. I’ll admit given my hx & I’ve only divulged a fraction here, I’m not easy to intimidate. I’m trained. Since birth. I once spent 6 hours being grilled by the FBI & at the end they couldn’t wait to release me. I am highly educated. A former member of mensa. However I’ve been in so many dicey situations it would sound made up. I understand the Ukrainians completely. There are some things worth dying for. Family. Home. Freedom. Burr & tillis are pieces of dogshit. Period. I can only hope the democrats find a goddamn candidate that can either keep his dick in his pants or doesn’t have one to start with. We need to take burr’s seat. We lose congress there will be no turning anything around.
To paraphrase the Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island: “Donald Trump: go **** yourself”
Surely everyone expected former guy to do this right?
Assuming we cared in the first place.
true that.
You wrote: “Even Switzerland has sanctioned Ukraine, breaking its vow of neutrality for the first time in history, that is how egregious this issue is.”
I assume you meant to write that Switzerland has sanctioned Russia, not Ukraine.
Thank you for checking on this.