The goddamn Trump Administration

[Millie_Fink]

And Senator Chris Murphy too:

Statement by Senator Chris Murphy:

---

This morning, I met with President Zelensky. It was a productive, respectful meeting. In our meeting, he confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine.

And then, about an hour later, this happened. . .

If you didn’t see it, I encourage you to watch the full video. What we witnessed between Donald Trump, JD Vance, and President Zelensky inside the Oval Office was an ambush.

It was a planned ambush designed to humiliate President Zelensky in order to benefit Vladimir Putin.
>
President Zelensky told me that he expected to have a tough meeting with Trump, but this was an embarrassment and an abomination for America.

Trump has become a lapdog for a brutal dictator in Moscow, and America’s global power is hemorrhaging as America sides with dictators over democracy. What an embarrassment.

It’s got to be hard for Americans to understand how the White House has just become an outlet for Kremlin propaganda — why the health of Vladimir Putin matters more than the health of democracies.

It was absolutely extraordinary to watch the planned embarrassment of an ally just because it’s good for Russia.

Nothing about what happened today is good for America.

It makes us look like a laughing stock. It makes us look like we do not care about democracy.

Donald Trump is giving a green light for Russia and China to invade their neighbors and to unveil a new era of global instability. This is terrible for the American economy and terrible for American workers.

President Zelensky came here to try to find some common ground, despite the fact that Donald Trump calls him a dictator.

Zelensky came seeking support despite the fact that you can’t work for the Trump Administration right now unless you pretend that the war in Ukraine was Ukraine’s fault. It’s all utter bullshit.

But Zelensky still came here because he cares about his people and about democracy.

What he got was something that no world leader, especially a vital ally like Ukraine, deserves.

I am deeply embarrassed for our country today. It is a terrible day for America’s reputation in the world.

Every best wish,

Chris Murphy

[sqlrob]

[anotheroldbbaccount]

America’s global power is hemorrhaging as America sides with dictators over democracy

As someone just said on Newsnight (I may be paraphrasing slightly): The US today destroyed all its soft power. All of it. It has none, now. It has lots of hard power, but that is all it now has.

[MagicFox]

And it won’t even have that much longer after the purging of LGTBQ+ service people, purging experienced generals, purging the admin people who make sure the supplies chains are functioning, firing vets from federal government jobs, degrading VA health services, purging intelligence agencies, and trying to “fix” military hardware production issues.

There’ll be nukes that, like Russia’s, maybe work. Of course, the people maintaining them have been fired, too.

[Millie_Fink]

[chenille]

I hope every report that makes it back to Trump emphasizes this kind of thing. Not that it was disgusting and cruel, because he loves that. But that it was throwing away his own influence. That it was voluntarily stepping down from leader of the free world to a regional player. That it was petty and weak, the work of a child pretending to be a king.

[KathyPartdeux]

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/kash-patel-fbi-director-start-actions-c3d5d57f?st=YEjXGW&reflink=article_copyURL_share

On Friday, his first day on the job, Patel ordered officials to relocate 1,500 employees from Washington to cities with high crime rates including Minneapolis, Detroit and Cleveland. Another FBI official piped in with a harsh reality, according to people familiar with the exchange: Each move could cost up to $100,000, and the bureau didn’t have the funds to cover such a restructuring, the official said. Government agencies generally aren’t allowed to spend money in ways not authorized by Congress, and often don’t have money for basic employee perks like office coffee. Patel was unmoved. Figure out how to do it anyway, and fast, he told them.

[IronEdithKidd]

Tripping over dollars to save dimes. Fucking brilliant.

[j9c]

@Millie_Fink

Maybe all the chemicals and such that agribusiness uses in those hundreds of thousands of acres? I imagine Iowa’s air and water are loaded with those toxins. Rural folks probably also consume a higher percentage of cancerous meats.

EWG's Tap Water Database: What's in Your Drinking Water?

This is a link to the first large public water supply on that page, Altoona Water Supply:

EWG's Tap Water Database: What's in Your Drinking Water?

this:

I know I know, correlation is not causation, confirmation bias is real, etc. etc.
But.

Feel free to click around in their public water supply database test results for contaminants. There’s plenty.

[bluehenbear]

[j9c]

The rat-bastards in the Oval insisted “this will make great TV” and we must understand that performative-everything is Job 1.

BREAKING: Trump Explodes in Oval Office Meeting with Zelensky

There’s a special place in the afterlife for gaslighters who kick a man [who is not down, is definitely standing] representing a country in the teeth of an existential war defending itself from the Russians. And North Koreans.

Today's disgusting scene

Friends,

Sorry to intrude on you again today, but it’s important.

If you were shocked and disgusted by the scene in the Oval Office today, with Trump and Vance belittling and berating President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, you’re not alone. Fourteen Democratic governors have released a joint statement condemning what occurred:

*(caption: “Donald Trump and JD Vance used the sacred Oval Office to berate President Zelensky for not trusting Vladimir Putin’s word. Americans must protect our strong democratic values on the world stage instead of undermining President Zelensky’s work to fight for his nation and the freedom of his people after being invaded by Russia.” )

They speak for much of America.

For more than three years, President Zelensky has courageously and nobly contained Putin’s aggression. Zelensky has maintained the morale of the people of Ukraine while diligently soliciting and getting help from Europe and the United States. He has waged a war that few assumed he could win, but he has not flinched.

He deserves our heartfelt thanks rather than the cruel rebuke delivered today by Trump and Vance.

Why did they hammer him? Because they don’t want Americans to view Zelensky as a hero. That view will complicate Trump’s plan to surrender Ukraine to Putin. Trump is ready to give Putin everything he wants. And then carve up the world.

Make no mistake: Putin’s aggression will not end with Ukraine. By giving in to Putin, Trump is inviting him to invade Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland — and then the rest of Eastern Europe that used to be under Soviet and Russian control.

Trump wants Canada, Greenland, Panama, and much else.

Today’s meeting in the Oval Office was a stage show. It will also be remembered by future historians (to the extent they have access to the truth) as a prelude to conquest. Trump believes only in power — which in his mind means complete and utter control. Putin does, too. The two dictators deserve each other.
…

[MagicFox]

Poland is not going to be a pushover, that’s for sure.

[Catsidhe]

“Fuck you, pay me.”

Welcome to Mafiocracy.

[Millie_Fink]

For better or worse:

[Millie_Fink]

Anyone know what Tramp meant when he said repeatedly, “Obama gave you sheets”?

[ficuswhisperer]

The context here was when Russia annexed Crimea, Obama’s foreign aid was non-lethal (food, bedding, training, etc.). Or in Trump’s mind “sheets”. By contrast, big, bad, and tough Trump gave them weapons. Hence the whole, “Obama gave you sheets, I gave you Javelins” line that he kept repeating.

Never mind it was Congress that approved the Javelins, and Trump was impeached because he tried to use those same Javelins as leverage to bribe Zelenskyy into digging up dirt on the Bidens.

[Surprise_Puma]

“Leadership” by an administration that imagines Vince McMahon’s plotlines to be the height of masculinity and heroism. Trying to shame a man who has more courage in any one of his digits than either of those two have in their entire souls.

[chenille]

Speaking of vice presidents, I vaguely remember someone with that name shattering the pretense of international law with an illegal invasion of another country just like Putin is doing now, but I guess because it’s been so long and they were mostly brown I’m supposed to forget that he belongs in hell too. Liz Cheney may be in the right on this, but her faction helped dig this hole and are only upset that it’s a little deeper than they wanted.

[Catsidhe]

@Surprise_Puma

their entire souls.

Bold assumption there.

[sqlrob]

Kash Patel Wants to Work From Home for FBI. But Who Does He Live With?