The Invasion at 3: Betrayal, Capitulation, and Hope
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STEVEN PIFER: Trump’s Two-Week Capitulation to Putin
IF IT WEREN’T OBVIOUS ALREADY, the past two weeks have once again demonstrated that Donald Trump dislikes, if not detests, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while he admires and wishes to befriend Vladimir Putin.
Trump’s animus toward Zelensky dates to his first term and the extortionate “perfect” 2019 phone call that led to Trump’s first impeachment. Explaining Trump’s unseemly infatuation with Putin is more challenging. But the outcome is all too clear: While pretending—not very convincingly—to negotiate with Putin, Trump is surrendering to America’s adversaries to the expense of its friends, all to the profound detriment of American national security.
CATHY YOUNG: Betrayal and Hope in Ukraine
THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine became a day of infamy for Donald Trump’s America. The United States was one of just eighteen countries (among them Russia, Hungary, North Korea, and Nicaragua) to oppose a U.N. resolution introduced by Ukraine that condemned the invasion, called for the withdrawal of Russian troops, and demanded accountability for Russia’s war crimes. Compounding this disgraceful farce, the United States then abstained from voting on its own anodyne resolution urging an end to the “conflict” and lamenting the loss of life on both sides because of amendments that clearly named Russia as the aggressor.
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WILL SALETAN: Republicans Follow Trump in Selling Out Ukraine
IN LESS THAN A DECADE, the GOP has transformed itself from a party of global leadership to a party of appeasement. It threatens Panama, Canada, and Greenland but sucks up to Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump led this transformation, but others in the party are completing it. They’ve joined him in a monstrous betrayal of Ukraine, our European allies, and the cause of freedom.
This weekend, Trump’s henchmen in the administration and Congress fanned out on the Sunday shows to promote the new Republican position on Ukraine. It’s a stew of cowardice, treachery, and deceit. Here are its core tenets.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Tuesday! It’s Cincinnati Chili Week here. My colleagues don’t understand the love Cincinnatians have for the stuff. Which means at our next get together, I’m going to have to bring some for a coney feast.
Don’t try to be like Trump and Elon… It never works. You’re gonna get fired or forced to resign. Like this guy.
Choosing his own pool… After the White House took the unprecedented step of taking over control of which outlets are in the “pool”, the WHCA issued the following statement.
Stiffing people doesn’t work at scale… Hugh Hewitt thinks Trump should take the “same approach” in a new column to the CA wildfires that Trump employed to restore the Wollman ice rink in New York. One problem? Trump stiffed some of the contractors on that project. Do better!
Quote of the Day
“It's incredible how the American right has swallowed Howard Zinn's worldview in the short space of 10 years.” —Chris Kieser
It really is the Good Will Hunting GOP. Minus the late fines, because no reading.
DOGE Quietly Deletes… the 5 Biggest Spending Cuts It Celebrated Last Week (NYT🎁)
Life imitates The Onion… From 1997.
Enough! This Bullshit Has to End, writes Jon Ganz, who was prompted by a piece in The Free Press about the GOP embrace of Nazi salutes and the bullshitting from people who should know better. People who like to be known opponents of anti-Semitism. Or is that changing, too in this brave, new horseshoe theory riddled world? Ganz is right: If you’re not against this bullshit, then best call it what it is: excusing.
Choosing his own pool… After the White House took the unprecedented step of taking over control of which outlets are in the “pool”, the WHCA issued the following statement.
The Secret Mall Apartment… Sign me up for this documentary.
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.