For whatever reason, the bottom line is this:

Adam Parkhomenko @adamparkhomenko.bsky.social

Trump is Putin's bitch.

Always has been. Always will be.

Be ashamed, America.

I ask you, Senators McConnell, Murkowski, Collins, and every other senator who knows exactly how destructive these events are to America's position in the world, how can you remain in this party? How can you continue to advance, with your votes, the Trump agenda? I ask you, supposedly moderate GOP congresspeople (wherever you may be hiding), how can you live with yourself as this train wreck gathers pace? How can you not immediately make moves to work with the Democrats to impeach this president and his gangster colleagues?
Make no mistake, history is watching what is unfolding. Trump and Vance crossed a giant moral Rubicon today. They showed the entire world the full fetid awfulness of their vision. Now it is up to us, the American people, to work out how to respond.
#42 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis

Ruth Ben-Ghiat
@ruthbenghiat
Just a reminder: the US is not Castro's Cuba, Putin's Russia, or Xi's China. At any moment the GOP could unite and oppose Trump and create a crisis for him. Their cowardice has been astounding but they can still act without being put in a Gulag or shot.

It is inconceivable that Putin will be satisfied with whatever gains he gets from any deal. It will ONLY be the precursor to more aggressive action. Full Stop. He has REPEATEDLY disregarded agreements and continued his aggression. To think some sort of deal foisted on Ukraine will end Putin's aggression is plain stupid. We had that after he invaded Georgia. We had that after he invaded the Crimea, we had that after he invaded the Donbas. How can ANYONE think he will stop now?!?
#35 | Posted by truthhurts at 2025-03-01 10:12 AM

Putin has been very clear about his long term plans/goals to bring back the glory days of the Russian empire:

'Putin is on the inside now': Trump team doesn't consider Russia a cybersecurity threat
www.alternet.org
#11 | Posted by reinheitsgebot

Here's a link to The Guardian article:

Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats

Recent incidents indicate US is no longer characterizing Russia as a cybersecurity threat, marking a radical departure: Putin is on the inside now'

Which of those parts of America's National Security infracture is not screwed??

Add to those points the POTUS-authorized unconstitutional activities of man-child Elon Musk with a small army of non-cleared, non-appropriated executive branch (?) employees to hack into nearly every federal entity's databases and terminate the employment countless numbers of career civil servants, and to install who-knows what kinds of worms or key-logger bugs into the systems used by every one of these organizations.
#23 | Posted by Augustine

Yes, we are well and thoroughly screwed, and MAGA voters fail to see it because they uncondidtionally trust Trump & Vance & Musk. Why?

Never thought id see the day when the democrats are pro war. Zelinski walked in there like he was entitled to US taxpayer money and military soldiers. Trump and Vance were right. Without the US, Ukraine has lost. Trump is looking for peace.
#18 | Posted by boaz

I never thought I'd see the day when Republicans would become such surrender to Putin monkeys. With US money but no US boots on the ground, Ukraine has significantly degraded Russia's military capablity, something Republicans would have cheered in the past. The only peace Trump is looking for is a bigger piece of the global oligarchic pie.

My bet is that Musk will walk out if Stewart asks him tough questions and pushes him too hard.

FYI:

Tom Nichols
@radiofreetom.bsky.social

By the way, the word in Russian and Ukrainian for a "suit" is "kostyum", in case you were wondering why Zelensky used that word. He likely meant "suit" in answering Glenn.

Here is Zelensky thanking Trump in the Oval office today before JD accused him of not doing so:

Hoodlum
@nothoodlum.bsky.social
But Zelensky never even said 'thank you'-except he did, and then the ambush followed.

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." Too bad so many Americans didn't follow Angelou's advice when it came to DonOLD:

Trump And Vance Ambush Zelensky In Prelude To Betrayal

JD Vance egged on the president, setting the stage for the US to abandon a key American ally in televised Oval Office meeting.

President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance moved to betray a key U.S. ally that has lost hundreds of thousands of people in fending off a Russian invasion on Friday, taunting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at an Oval Office meeting after spending weeks trying to undermine the bilateral relationship.

The Oval Office blowup, in which Trump and Vance berated Zelensky as ungrateful while dismissing the prospect that Russian President Vladimir Putin might renege on a potential ceasefire agreement, is a culmination in a weeks-long campaign to choreograph an end to U.S. support for Ukraine.

"Media suppression"

Check:

Taniel
@taniel.bsky.social
A Trump adviser said a Voice of America reporter was "treasonous." Now the reporter has been put on leave, pending an investigation.

And articles have been watered down to remove criticism of the president.

Spot on:

Ron Filipkowski
@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social

Zelensky found out what it was like to be a US governor in a blue state asking Trump for medical supplies during the pandemic. Or disaster relief after a wildfire or storm. It's not his money, but he fully expects you to beg and plead for it and tell him how wonderful he is.

FTA:

Friday, February 28, 2025, will go into the history books as one of the grimmest days in American diplomacy, the beginning of a long-term disaster that every American, every U.S. ally, and anyone who cares about the future of democracy will have to endure. With the White House's betrayal of Ukraine capping a month of authoritarian chaos in America, Putin, along with other dictators around the world, can finally look at Trump with confidence and think: one of us.

I look at it this way: they have all our information, why shouldn't we have theirs?

Rick Wilson reacts to the disgraceful Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Today's Oval Office spectacle wasn't about showing strength, it was about surrendering to Putin. Trump and JD Vance have sold out America.

Trump: "This is going to be great TV, I will say that."

I think Trump thinks it made him and Vance and the US look strong and powerful, but really it made them look like a bunch of bullies who needed to gang up on one guy in order to dominate him and make him shut up.

FTA:

Today's meeting gave the lie to any claim that this administration's policy is driven by any strategic effort to advance the interests of the United States, however misguided. Trump and Vance displayed in the Oval Office a highly personal hatred. There was no effort here to make a case for American interests. Vance complained that Zelensky had traveled to Pennsylvania to thank U.S. ammunition workers, because, Vance charged, the appearance amounted to campaigning for the Democratic presidential ticket. "Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me," Trump angrily explained. "He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia, Russia, Russia."

Both the president and vice president showed the U.S.-led alliance system something it needed urgently to know: The national-security system of the West is led by two men who cannot be trusted to defend America's allies"and who deeply sympathize with the world's most aggressive dictator.

Trump admitted they did it for the cameras:

Jim Wright on FB:

Elect a contemptable second rate Realty TV star, get contemptable second rate Realty TV government.

And that's exactly what this was, the standard issue rotten disgusting Reality TV ambush.

This isn't statesmanship. This isn't diplomacy. This isn't how a president should behave. This isn't how we should treat our allies.

This is goddamn disgraceful. It's embarrassing. It's bullying. It's punching down. It's second rate Reality TV, manufactured drama and conflict, trolling for clicks, likes, and ------ comments from the worst people on the internet.

That's all it is.

America should be ashamed.

The real truth:

Ron Filipkowski
@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social

Trump and Vance needed to create an incident to provide a justification for their pre-planned abandonment of Ukraine now, then separation from NATO in the near future. That's what that was all about, and that was always the way a second Trump term was going to go.

God forbid if there is another 9/11, we can forget the rest of the world coming to our support and defense.

Steven Beschloss
@stevenbeschloss.bsky.social

If this ambush of President Zelensky was planned, it makes the behavior of Trump and Vance even more disgraceful. What democratic ally can ever trust a single word uttered by these despicable men who spit in the face of every American who fought and died to save our democratic nation?

FTA:

All of these things exist in some form already, and all have been used to suppress dissent before. What distinguishes this point in history is, I think, the severity with which we are going to see all three of these things unleashed. All of these things have, in the past, been used somewhat covertly, because politicians understood that they were perceived as shameful. That shame is going away now. These methods are coming out to play in the sunshine.

Grifter gangster gonna grift and gangster:

Historian calls out Trump's Ukraine 'protection racket': 'Not a lot of diplomatic thought here'

President Donald Trump is slated to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he called a "dictator." They are expected to finalize an agreement giving the U.S. rights to rare minerals in Ukraine. Historian Jon Meacham told MSNBC on Friday that Trump's approach was reminiscent of the Sopranos.

"So one of the things that I think is really important here is to remember that we are now living " to shift from a historical metaphor to a cultural one--we're now living in the Sopranos, right? This is a protection racket. Basically, President Zelenskyy is being asked to come to Washington to pay for our protection," he continued.

"He can come back when he is ready for Peace." ...

What Trump really means is when he's ready to grovel.