BACKGROUND
1)Fareed Zakaria, “Trump is surrendering much more than Ukraine to Putin; A hasty peace deal will see the U.S. forfeit principles and norms built over decades); Wasshington Post,
February 21, 2025 (6:00 a.m. EST);
2) Philip F. Rubio, “Save the Postal Service; Trump’s personal hostility has merged with long-standing conservative antipathy to endanger a vital civic institution,” The Atlantic, April 24,2020
BACKGROUND
1) Andrew E. KramerConstant Méheut and Anton Troianovski, “Zelensky and Trump Trade Blows as Feud Escalates Over Peace Talks; President Trump called Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” after the Ukrainian president took issue with his statements on the war with Russia,” New York Times, February 19, 2925 (2:04 p.m. ET);
2) Pjotr Sauer and Luke Harding, “Trump calls Zelenskyy a dictator amid fears of irreconcilable rift; Remark follows Ukrainian leader’s claim US president living in a Russian ‘disinformation bubble’,” The Guardian, February 19, 2025 (13.38 GMT):
3) Robert Jimison, “As Trump Turns Toward Russia and Against Ukraine, Republicans Are Mum; Congressional Republicans have mostly tempered their criticism or deferred to the president as he topples what were once their party’s core foreign policy principles,” New York Times, February 19, 2025;
4) Paul Sonne, “Trump Elevates Kremlin Talking Points, a Familiar Pattern From His First Term; President Trump’s description of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine as a “Dictator without Elections” echoes the Kremlin’s messaging,” New York Times, February 20, 2025 (1:03 p.m. ET);
5) David E. Sanger, “Europe’s New Reality: Trump May Not Quit NATO, but He’s Already Undercutting It; European officials knew the president’s win would threaten the fundamental precepts of the post-World War II order. But the speed at which it is unraveling has created a crisis of enormous proportions,” New York Times, February 20, 2025 (12:48 p.m. ET);
6) Nicholas Kristoff, “With Trump’s Prostration to Putin, Expect a More Dangerous World,” New York Times, February 19, 2025;
7) Craig Unger, “Donald Trump Was Everything Vladimir Putin Could Have Wished For; From the days when the KGB sought to cultivate him 40 years ago to his term as president, Trump was a useful stooge. And if he gets another term, he still can be, New Republic, March 2, 2022;
Winston Churchill served as Prime Minister in a Conservative government in Britain from 1940-1945. No elections were held for 10 years while Britain was fighting World War II.
Donald Trump is crazy to criticize Zelensky for not holding elections when Putin has not held free elections for decades, if ever.
What can we expect from a crazy President whomis reportedly a Russian asset and who seems to be channeling Russian propaganda and Putin from the White House.
Congress must remove Trump at the earliest opportunity.
Trump says Ukraine started tge war.
Really?
BACKGROUND
1) Anton Troianovski and Ismaeel Naar (Reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia), “U.S. and Russia Pursue Partnership in a Head-Spinning Shift in Relations; The two sides met in Saudi Arabia for their most extensive discussions in years. In addition to Ukraine, business ties were on the table,” New York Times, February 18, 2025 (1:47 pm ET);
BACKGROUND
1) Stefanie Bolzen, Alfred Hackensberger, und Dominik Kalus, “UKRAINE-KRIEG: ‘Er hat sogar mein Wahlkampfmotto gebraucht’, freut sich Trump nach dem Telefonat mit Putin,” Die Welt, den 13. Februar 2924 (03:31);
2) Stefanie Bolzen, Alfred Hackensberger, and Dominik Kalus, “UKRAINE WAR: ‘He even needed my campaign motto,’ Trump rejoices after the phone call with Putin,” Die Welt, February 13, 2025 (3:31 a.m.);
The echoes of Munich in September 1938 were deafening, as Donald Trump began selling out Ukraine to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on February 12, 2025.
At Munich, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Ėdouard Daladier agreed with Italy and Germany to cede the German-speaking Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia, to Germany and Adolf Hitler who threatened a large-scale invasion to seize the territory. This agreement was negotiated over heads of the Czechs who were not allowed to participate in negotiations over the future of their own country.
This was the culminating act of Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement of Germany. The policy did not work, as hit violated the agreement iwhen he invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia (so-called “rump Czechoslovakia”) in March 1939, and Poland on September 1, 1939.
Donald Trump is reportedly a “Russian sset”, and he has lost no time in setting out to do Putin’s work.
Paul Hegseth, the former Fox news commentator and now U.S. Defense Secretary gave away Trump’s position at the Munich Security Conference, stating that 1) NATO membership for Ukraine was out of the question, and 2) that it was “unrealistic” for Ukraine to expect to return to its (internationally-recognized) borders before jthe Russian invasions in) 2014.
Look for more pro-Russian actions from Donald Trump, the American president who is reliably reported to ba a “Russian asset”.
Donald Trump is a brilliant politician and manipulatorr of popular opinion.
When it comes ton substantive foreign policy, he is a profoundly ignorant and stupid man, as suggested by his statements tgat tge U.S. would “take” and own Gaza and take back the Panama Canal.
He is a the zenith of his grandiosity at the moment. zhe is about to learn that the realities of international politics are more intractible than he might have imagined.
While he disdains all law, he is also about to learn tgat international law has teeth and cannot be ignored at his whim.
Any agreement recognizing Russian territorial gains achieved by military conquest would be void under peremptory norms of international law (jus cogens) from which there can be no derogation, not even by agreement between the parties.
Even if Trump and Putin reached agreement recognizing its territorial gains acquitted by military conquest, and coerced Ukraine into accepting it, the agreement would be void under international law.
This Trump will have to learn the hard way when other countries refuse to recognize or support any such agreement.
The United States is looking at four years of foreign policy led by an incredibly ignorant and stupid president.
BACKGROUND
1) William R. Bay,”ABA: Trump team’s ‘wide-scale affronts to the rule of law’ weaken America,” Erie Times News/MSN,February 11, 2025;
2) Sara Boboltz “American Bar Association Says Trump Is Not Following The Rule Of Law; “No American can be proud of a government that carries out change in this way,” the group’s president wrote in a searing statement, HUFF POST, Febuary 11, 2025 (12:42 PM EST);
As of 9:00 p.m. on February 11, neither the Washington Post nor the New York Times had posted a story about the ABA president’s statement.
Do the editors at the Washington Post even know what the American Bar Association is?
Or do they have instructions to limit the articles critical of Trump that they print? Since Jeff Bezos’s interference in the editorial process at the Post, one must always suspect the paper is pulling its punches when it comes to Trump.
See Jennifer Rubin, “I Have Resigned from The Washington Post, effective today; Why I left to help launch a vibrant, new, independent media outlet, The Contrarian, January 13, 2025.
Do the editors at the New York Times even know what the American Bar Association is?
Are they also pulling their punches?
See Paul Krugman, “Leaving the New York Times; The full story,” Paul Krugman (Substack), January 28, 2025.
Our leading newspapers appear to pulling their punches when it comes to Trump. This is manifested in stories they don’t cover, the calm way in which they report outrageous developments in an ongoing coup d’état, or autogolpe (self coup), and in the lack of investigative journalism that explains what us going on in Trump’s and Musk’s ongoing efforts to overthrow the Constitutional order and the rule of law.
In an earlier time, they would have been all over a statement by the president of the American Bar Association that the President was not following the Rule of Law.
As lamentable as this is to a longtime reader and fan of the Times since Vietnam days and Watergate, we must now look also to alternative news sources such as The Contrarian to get the full range of news, analysis, and opinion we need in order to defend and sustain our democracy.
BACKGROUND
1) Steven Erlanger, “Can European ‘Boots on the Ground’ Help Protect Ukraine’s Security?; Deterring Russia from re-invading Ukraine, once this war ends, could require 150,000 troops and American help with air cover, intelligence and missile defense, experts say.,” The New York Times, February 11, 2025 (Updated 9:14 a.m. ET);
BACKGROUND
1) “Trump allies suggest defying court orders after stinging legal rebukes; A judge in Rhode Island warned Monday that the Trump administration could be violating an order to halt a spending freeze, Washington Post,February 10, 2025 (updatedat 8:30 p.m. EST)
Go ahead, Mr. President. You have been defying the Constitution and tge lawbforva long time.Why notvdefynthe courts.
Go ahead. It will make impeachment and removingbyou from office all the easier, and more likely to happen soon.
BACKGROUND
1)”En direct, guerre en Ukraine : Donald Trump suggère que l’Ukraine ‘pourrait être russe un jour’n Le président américain a aussi répété vouloir un accès pour les Etats-Unis aux terres rares ukrainiennes en échange de l’aide américaine à Kiev face à la Russie,” Le Monde, le 10 janvier 2025;
05:49
Donald Trump suggère que l’Ukraine « pourrait être russe un jour »
Donald Trump a évoqué lundi la possibilité que l’Ukraine devienne « russe un jour », répétant vouloir un accès pour les Etats-Unis aux terres rares ukrainiennes en échange de l’aide américaine à Kiev face à la Russie.
« Je veux que notre argent soit sécurisé parce que nous dépensons des centaines de milliards de dollars. Ils pourraient arriver à un accord, ils pourraient ne pas arriver à un accord. Ils pourraient être russes un jour, comme ils pourraient ne pas être russes un jour », a déclaré le président américain dans un entretien à la chaîne Fox News, ajoutant avoir réclamé à Kiev l’équivalent de 500 milliards de dollars de terres rares, des métaux notamment utilisés dans l’électronique.
Three weeks into the second Trump administration, one thing is clear: To limit chaos domestically and internationally, the wrecking ball-in-chief must be removed from the Oval Office.
The sooner the Democrats start working in unison to achieve this goal, the sooner the ship of state will becstabilized, tge sooner Trump’s and Elon Musk’s destruction derby will be stopped.
More than democracy and the rule of law in the United States are at stake.
The questiin facing tge Democrats is hiw much more destruction will take place before they wake up and mobilize to act in unison tn remove the President from office.
We argued on January 29 that it was not too soon to speak of 47’s removal.
***
Is it too soon to speak of removing 47?
It is never too soon to think of the steps that might be necessary to defend our democracy. We are talking about a president who has already led an attempted coup d’état. He is not entitled to a presumption he will act legally or in good faith.
A prudent course would be for the Democrats to start gathering the evidence and building the case for 47’s removal. Then, as each new outrage adds elements to their brief, they should be engaging their Republican counterparts in conversation.
As the “high crimes and misdemeanors” mount, the day may come when their Republican colleagues’ fear of a lame duck president diminishes, and they start thinking about the future, and even national security and the national interest.
Of course, Vice-President J.D. Vance represents a considerable risk himself. He appears to be guided mainly by extreme personal ambition. But while he appears totally unprincipled, to date he does seem to be rational. Whether he aspires to be a dictator or not is unknown.
Is it too soon to be speaking about the removal of 47?
As non-Nazi Germans who lived through the first months of 1933 could attest, it is better to be too soon than to be too late. As they did in Germany in January, February, and March1933, events can succeed one another very quickly in some circumstances.
There is always the possibility of an extraordinary, unforeseen event.
Like a Reichstag fire.
BACKGROUND
1)”WÄHREND EINER RAZZIA: Russischer Sänger stirbt nach Fenstersturz in St. Petersburg,” Die Welt, den 8. Februar 2025?
2) “Russian singer dies after window fall in St. Petersburg,” Die Welt,February 8, 2025.
So many prominet Russiansvare falling out of their windows to their deaths that one has to seriously question the design of the windoes from which citizens keep falling.
This is a problem leading Russian schools of architecture should br working on as top priority.
Given the fact that many of the victims are highly educated, often with degrees from Russia’s most prestigious universities, “contributory victim stupidity” can be ruled out as a major cause of these tragic accidents.
Behind closed doors, officials are seriouslyinvestigating the possibility that Russian window design may be at fault. It is well known that Soviet and more recently Russian window design has not kept pace with the latest developmentin home and office design and construction in tge leading Western countries.
Soviet and Russian window design, often unchanged since the 1920’s, been blamed for similar accidents, which increased sharply beginning in Lenin’s and Stalin’s times.
Parycularly noteworthy in the present case is that the victim fell out his window while a police raid on his apsrtment was underway.
Experts cite this happenstanceascsyggesring the desirability of a change in police protocols for raiding an apartment.
One of the:first things the police should do, according to these experts. is to close the windows.