Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

media news

Pictures say everything

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Social media have become, for better or worse, contemporary society’s premier method of exhibiting what’s on people’s minds and in their hearts.

One social media image popped up on my Facebook feed today. They are very expressive. One image shows Donald Trump lecturing Volodymr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office; Trump’s image is stern and the text next to the picture tells you Zelenskyy’s country has been invaded by Russia in an illegal and immoral military action.

The second image shows Trump shaking hands with Vladimir Putin, the thug who runs Russia and the text notes that Putin was given a red-carpet welcome, a rare private meeting with the president of the U.S.A., a ride in a presidential limousine. This is the invader! The bad guy! The alleged war criminal!

What is wrong with this picture? Just about everything that might cross your mind.

Trump is trying to get Putin and Zelenskyy to talk directly to each other. I give Trump credit for that effort, even though it has been haphazard and slap-dash. I have trouble grasping, though, how he can treat the victim of an illegal military actiion with disdain and disrespect while showering the aggressor with all the niceties afforded to a head of state.

Let us remind ourselves of this reality: Vladimir Putin has been accused formally by international legal authorities of committing crimes against humanity by invading Ukraine. Zelenskyy deserves the red carpet. Putin deserves to be arrested, handcuffed and forced to stand trial.

International news

Trump, Putin serve a ‘nothingburger’

All the hype, the speculation, the thought of a possible breakthrough … and Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, after meeting in Anchorage, stood before the assembled media and didn’t say a damn thing worthwhile.

The men gathered to discuss the Ukraine War. Whether there would be a ceasefire. Finding a possible path to peace. Seeking international aid to assist the victims of this bloody war that Putin started three years ago for reasons that still baffle many of us.

They presented nothing. Zero. No result.

They did put on a show. Putin spoke first. Then it was Trump’s turn. About the only “news” to come from the presser was Putin saying, in English, that Trump could visit Moscow for the men’s next meeting. Trump accepted the invitation.

I’m still trying to parse what went down. No one knows what the leaders said in private. For all any of us knows they might have simply taken pot shots at the man who should have been in the room, Ukraine President Volodyrmyr Zelenskyy.

Someone speculated that at least Trump could have made some public demand, the way President Reagan did in 1988 when he said in Berlin, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The Soviet leader did a year later.

No one is going to get fat feasting on a nothingburger such as what Trump and Putin served up in Anchorage. I will cling to my belief that Putin needs to shed his stubborn resistance to Zelenskyy’s presence at the negotiating table with the aim of stopping the bloodshed that has ripped Ukraine to shreds

military news

Zelenskyy must take part!

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not a spectator, a bystander in what has turned out to be the bloodiest ground war in Europe since World War II.

Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago seeking to overrun the sovereign nation. It was supposed to take only a few days. The fight has turned into a quagmire, thanks in large part to the huge aid packages recommended by then-President Joe Biden.

Now, Donald Trump wants to meet with Russian goon Vladimir Putin — in Alaska, no less — to seek a way to stop the violence, the bloodshed, the war. I applaud the end Trump is seeking. I am concerned that a conclusion will not include the first political casualty of the Ukraine war, the president of the country that Putin attacked.

Zelenskyy already has rejected a Russian proposal that requires Ukraine to give back land it took from the Russian invaders. Russia is making zero concessions for the illegal invasion it launched. Or for the war crimes it has committed by bombing schools and hospitals. Or for the civilians the Russian army has killed.

Zelenskyy is not a spectator. He has been an active participant in this war. He needs a place at the negotiating table and he deserves to have his beliefs heard above the din of the battle.

Uncategorized

Finally a good word for Trump?

Can it be that your friendly blogger — aka me! — will be able to send a good word of encouragement for something the Donald Trump administration did?

Negotiations in Saudi Arabia between U.S. and Ukrainian diplomats have produced a ceasefire agreement that seemingly strengthens Ukraine’s hand. It might lead to a peace treaty that ends the three years of bloodshed caused when Russia invaded Ukraine.

If it holds up and if the Russians agree to it, then I will be delighted to extend a good word to Trump for directing this big step toward ending a war that began because Vladimir Putin had empire-building on what passes for his cagey mind.

“The Ukrainian delegation today made something very clear, that they share President Trump’s vision for peace, they share his determination to end the fighting, to end the killing, to end the tragic meat grinder of people,” White House national security adviser Michael Waltz said after the meetings.

I have said all along that I don’t believe anything Trump says. If he says the sun sets in the west, I well might be forced to look it up.

But in this case, if there’s a glimmer of hope for an end to the killing in Ukraine, I am anxious to give Trump the credit for a potential breakthrough.

International news

What could go wrong?

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to the White House today supposedly to cement a deal over some mineral rights with the United States.

It didn’t end with anything signed. It ended instead with Zelenskyy storming out a shouting match with Donald Trump, who along with Vice President J.D. Vance, managed to insult the beleaguered Zelenskyy to the point of immense frustration.

This man is our ally, or at least he was our ally when Russian forces attacked Ukraine three years ago while Joe Biden was president of the United States.

It’s all changed now that Biden has retired and Trump has returned to power. Trump has buddied up to Russian goon Vladimir Putin, taking up where he left off when he lost his re-election bid to Biden in 2020.

That a meeting with Zelenskyy would crater as it did today should have surprised no one, given Trump’s propensity for saying the wrong things at the wrong time.

International news

Trump to abandon Ukraine

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Donald J. Trump is on the verge of abandoning a longheld U.S. foreign policy, which calls for this nation to stand firm against aggression from nations that seek to undermine democratic sovereignty.

He’s going to meet soon with Russian thug/goon Vladimir Putin to “negotiate” a deal to end the war in Ukraine. The two pals no doubt are going to stick in the ear of Ukraine President Volodymr Zellenskyy, who’s been fighting his heart out against the Russian aggressors for the past three years.

How was he able to keep the Russians at bay while inflicting grievous casualties on the aggressors? Because U.S. support provided by President Joe Biden in concert with our NATO allies.

Well, Trump is now sitting in Biden’s former office and he and his MAGA cultists appear set on flattening Zellenskyy’s efforts against the Russian invaders.

I have no clue the direction these “negotiations” will take. I’m not smart enough to figure that out. I sense, though, that NATO, the EU and much of the free world is going to feel betrayed by the new administration’s cozying up to Putin.

I also believe Putin will see this suck-up policy as giving him license to continue his aggression in eastern Europe.

International news

Good riddance, Mr. Despot

It’s not too often we can cheer news from the Mideast but today is one of those rare days.

Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad’s government has been toppled and the dictator has received asylum in Russia. Armed rebels managed to run this madman out of the country.

I consider this reason to cheer the news. Assad is a bad guy. One of the worst guys on Earth. He has been indicted as a war criminal because of the immense pain he inflicted on his people. The man needs to be delivered to the justice system.

I won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen, given that he is living now in Russia, home to another war criminal, thug/goon/killer Vladimir Putin.

Indeed, the fighting in Syria likely won’t end soon. Without Assad, the pro-government forces have no one for whom to fight … and die!

So, we have reason to cheer some news out of a region that has ripped to pieces by the ravages of war.

Joe Biden, military news

Putin threatens to go MAD

Vladimir Putin needs no explanation of what used to pass as a nuclear deterrence policy followed by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The Russian dictator reportedly is angry that President Biden has given Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles to strike deeply into Russia as it seeks to defend itself against Putin’s immoral and illegal invasion of its sovereign neighbor.

What is the Russian goon/thug/madman/tyrant/despot threatening to do? He is threatening to use “tactical nuclear weapons” against Ukrainian forces.

Let’s see. How do I say this tactfully? Oh, hell. I can’t.

It would be a mistake of catastrophic proportions!

You see, U.S. and Soviet nuclear deterrence was based on a policy of “mutually assured destruction.” Putin, who once led the Soviet system of spooks, knows the policy as well as any Russian alive today.

Using tactical nukes in the largest ground war in Europe since World War II well could produce a response from NATO — and the United States — that could destroy Russia.

Therefore, I am hesitant to buy fully into the notion that Vladimir Putin has gone MAD.

Then again, Putin did invade Ukraine … and his forces are getting their butts kicked in the field of battle.

crime news, International news

ISIS rears its evil head

Joe Biden has been handed yet another crisis … as if he needs anything else to occupy his time.

The Islamic State is taking “credit” for a massive shooting spree in Moscow that has killed at least 60 people; they were attending a music festival in the Russian capital.

What does the president do? He’s already on record opposing Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine. He has labeled Putin a war criminal for the indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets.

He now might be forced to decide whether to send aid to Russia as it seeks to clean up the carnage left by ISIS’s ghastly goons. The victims were innocent civilians. Does the president commit U.S. intelligence professionals to help the Russians identify the source of this horrific deed?

All that said, I am left only to offer my deep sympathy to the family members and loved ones of those who were killed or injured by terrorists. As for what President Biden might do, I offer my sincere good wishes that his power of discernment doesn’t fail him now.

International news, national news, political news

Where’s the outrage?

The 45th POTUS has remained stunningly silent on the “rigged election” that occurred the other day in Russia, which elected his pal Vladimir Putin to another term as president/strongman/despot/thug/goon.

And yet the former Moron in Chief continues to rail against the phony allegation that the 2020 election in this country was “stolen” from him. It wasn’t.

Putin is despot for life in Russia, a title to which his American pal aspires, or so it appears.

He “won” the election in Russia against virtually zero opposition, which is how they do things in the formerly democratic Russian Federation. It is reverting to the ways of old, to the ways of the evil empire it replaced in 1991.

Are we hearing anything in protest from the presumed Republican presidential nominee or from his shrinking gaggle of cult followers?

Hah! Not even …