The Oval Office ambush Trump and Vance pulled on Ukraine President Zelenskyy could be the final break with 80 years of treaties and alliances that served the core interests of the United States magnificently. That cooperation not only deterred an aggressive Soviet Union and its Russian successor state from taking over Western Europe and threatening America. It also supplied the key component of America’s unprecedented post-World War II prosperity by providing markets for American goods and services and creating tens of millions of jobs producing those goods and services.
It is stunning that this could all be upended in just a few weeks. But that is exactly what Donald Trump and his malevolent minions have accomplished. The capstone was the shameful White House meeting with Zelenskyy in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance parroted Kremlin lies and talking points like dutiful little puppets in service of their new ally and BFF, Vladimir Putin.
I don’t see how this once great nation which has been the bulwark of the free world can recover from this massive embarrassment and abject surrender to the dark forces of evil that want to neuter the U.S. The disgraceful performance Trump and Vance put on before the cameras was a new low point in the American saga. We are humiliated before the world.
Putin and his gangster thugs probably cannot believe their good fortune. Three years after an illegal invasion of Ukraine that that heroic nation has fought to a standstill, and during which Russia has lost hundreds of thousands of troops and seen its economy go down the toilet, along come Trump and Vance to save Putin from his folly. Moreover, these two American traitors have already acceded to Russia’s territorial and other demands without bothering to ask for any concessions from Putin. Not that anything Putin promises would be worth the paper it is printed on. Security guarantees are a joke, as evidenced by the previous three such guarantees (one Budapest and two Minsk Agreements) Putin signed in the recent past and then promptly violated.
Trump, Vance and the feckless Republican Party that serves these two Putin poodles are the very definition of “useful idiots.” Putin has these servile saps pegged perfectly. All they care about is clinging to power, our national security and national interests be damned. They have abandoned any pretense of serving the public good and don’t give a fig for our country and its future. Vladimir Putin has the entire bunch of submissive quislings on an ever-shortening leash. He must be elated at how easy it was to turn these weak-kneed grovelers into a rubber-stamp Reichstag. Lackeys and lickspittles all.
Compounding this tragic turn towards an existential enemy that wants to destroy us is the sickening fact that half of our country does not appear to care if we do a 180 and hurtle down this authoritarian road into Putin’s putrid pocket. It is impossible to accept that America, once the beacon of freedom and liberty, is willing to abandon these hard-fought gains with just a shrug.
P.S. I made the bad mistake Tuesday evening of watching Trump’s entire childish, nasty and lie-infested speech to the Republican Reichstag and Democratic members. Worse, I did it on a full stomach. Bad enough to have to listen to him hoist himself above George Washington, lie about 300-year olds getting Social Security checks, saber-rattle against Panama and Greenland, and dump all over Joe Biden, among the other vile garbage he spewed. It was also cringeworthy watching how monumentally lame was the Democrats’ behavior: ping-pong paddle signs signifying nothing; not pretty in pink (I failed to get the message); occasional heckling. Low points were in abundance on both sides. Kudos, nevertheless to Sen. Elissa Slotkin for the best-ever response to a presidential address to Congress. Too bad fewer viewers saw it than used to watch re-runs of “Make That Spare.”
Dick Hermann
March 7, 2025
It is stunning that this could all be upended in just a few weeks. But that is exactly what Donald Trump and his malevolent minions have accomplished. The capstone was the shameful White House meeting with Zelenskyy in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance parroted Kremlin lies and talking points like dutiful little puppets in service of their new ally and BFF, Vladimir Putin.
I don’t see how this once great nation which has been the bulwark of the free world can recover from this massive embarrassment and abject surrender to the dark forces of evil that want to neuter the U.S. The disgraceful performance Trump and Vance put on before the cameras was a new low point in the American saga. We are humiliated before the world.
Putin and his gangster thugs probably cannot believe their good fortune. Three years after an illegal invasion of Ukraine that that heroic nation has fought to a standstill, and during which Russia has lost hundreds of thousands of troops and seen its economy go down the toilet, along come Trump and Vance to save Putin from his folly. Moreover, these two American traitors have already acceded to Russia’s territorial and other demands without bothering to ask for any concessions from Putin. Not that anything Putin promises would be worth the paper it is printed on. Security guarantees are a joke, as evidenced by the previous three such guarantees (one Budapest and two Minsk Agreements) Putin signed in the recent past and then promptly violated.
Trump, Vance and the feckless Republican Party that serves these two Putin poodles are the very definition of “useful idiots.” Putin has these servile saps pegged perfectly. All they care about is clinging to power, our national security and national interests be damned. They have abandoned any pretense of serving the public good and don’t give a fig for our country and its future. Vladimir Putin has the entire bunch of submissive quislings on an ever-shortening leash. He must be elated at how easy it was to turn these weak-kneed grovelers into a rubber-stamp Reichstag. Lackeys and lickspittles all.
Compounding this tragic turn towards an existential enemy that wants to destroy us is the sickening fact that half of our country does not appear to care if we do a 180 and hurtle down this authoritarian road into Putin’s putrid pocket. It is impossible to accept that America, once the beacon of freedom and liberty, is willing to abandon these hard-fought gains with just a shrug.
P.S. I made the bad mistake Tuesday evening of watching Trump’s entire childish, nasty and lie-infested speech to the Republican Reichstag and Democratic members. Worse, I did it on a full stomach. Bad enough to have to listen to him hoist himself above George Washington, lie about 300-year olds getting Social Security checks, saber-rattle against Panama and Greenland, and dump all over Joe Biden, among the other vile garbage he spewed. It was also cringeworthy watching how monumentally lame was the Democrats’ behavior: ping-pong paddle signs signifying nothing; not pretty in pink (I failed to get the message); occasional heckling. Low points were in abundance on both sides. Kudos, nevertheless to Sen. Elissa Slotkin for the best-ever response to a presidential address to Congress. Too bad fewer viewers saw it than used to watch re-runs of “Make That Spare.”
Dick Hermann
March 7, 2025
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