The Conversation -- March 3, 2025
Siobhan O'Grady & Serhii Korolchuk of the Washington Post: Ukrainians mock Trump & Co. for whining about President Zelensky's attire.
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Marie: The New York Times has blocked me because I read too fast; their system thinks I'm a bot. And there's no getting through. So I'll be making do with other media reports until the Times decides I'm a slow enough reader.
Not content with destroying the country, liberal democratic values and the Western alliance, Trump is determined to destroy Earth. ~~~
~~~ David Gelles, et al., of the New York Times: “In a few short weeks..., [Donald] Trump has severely damaged the government’s ability to fight climate change, upending American environmental policy with moves that could have lasting implications for the country, and the planet. With a flurry of actions that have stretched the limits of presidential power, Mr. Trump has gutted federal climate efforts, rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry. He is abandoning efforts to reduce global warming, even as the world has reached record levels of heat that scientists say is driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels.... To achieve such a wholesale overhaul of the country’s climate policies in such a short time, the Trump administration has reneged on federal grants, fired workers en masse and attacked longstanding environmental regulations.... On Inauguration Day, Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, making it the only nation to walk away.” ~~~
~~~ FYI, Ben Noll of the Washington Post: “Meteorological winter, which runs from December to February, ended this weekend.... It ended the coldest three month period in the United States since the winter of 2013 to 2014.... Despite the frigid temperatures, 67 percent of the country experienced below-average snowfall.”
Francesca Ebel of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration’s rewrite of decades of U.S. foreign policy on Russia, laid bare in the Oval Office confrontation between ... Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is bringing Washington into alignment with Moscow, the Kremlin said Sunday — a shift that could upend the geopolitics that have governed international relations since World War II . 'The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, state television reported Sunday. 'This largely aligns with our vision.' Moscow’s vision, which has focused on a push to reclaim influence over much or all of the former Soviet Union and defeat liberal democracy, has made Russia a pariah to the West.... The Oval Office blowup last week ... has been seen here as a 'gift' to the Kremlin.” The Guardian's report is here. Want more evidence Peskov is right? -- See story linked below, on how Hegseth has disarmed U.S. cybersecurity ops against Russia.
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Sky News: "Volodymyr Zelenskyy was advised to wear a suit to the White House and Donald Trump was offended when he didn't, according to reports.... Amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands, it was Mr Zelenskyy's outfit that seemed to set the meeting off on a bad footing. As Mr Trump shook Mr Zelenskyy's hand at the entrance to the West Wing, he said: 'He is all dressed up today.' Then, during the disastrous press conference, Brian Glenn, who is the chief White House correspondent for right-wing website Real America's Voice [MB: and also the boyfriend of Marjorie Taylor Greene, so obviously a man of taste & discernment], asked Mr Zelenskyy why he doesn't wear a suit and accused him of having a lack of respect for America. 'I will wear a costume when this war is finished,' the Ukrainian leader responded." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Watching over the trainwreck of a press availability was a bust of Winston Churchill, reportedly placed in the Oval office at Trump's request. "Images also began circulating of Winston Churchill visiting the White House during the Second World War, dressed in a wartime 'siren suit' [MB: so called because Churchill said he could don it in half-a-minute if warning sirens went off when he wasn't dressed]. Churchill wore the one-piece air raid outfit during a visit to President Franklin D Roosevelt, in which he hoped to persuade the American public to join the war." A number of photo captions I've read say the photos of Churchill wearing a casual coverall on the White House lawn were taken in January 1942. In fairness to Churchill, he stayed at the White House from just before Christmas 1941 till some time in January 1942, with a side trip to Ottawa in late December. So the coverall Churchill wore in the photo op was not the only outfit in his suitcase; there are photos of him wearing a suit, a sports jacket, black-tie and a full military uniform during the visit. In any case, the U.S. already had declared war on Japan and Germany. Thanks to Bill near San Jose for the hint. ~~~
Marie: It is not only Putin who is delighted by the Trump/Vance performance. ~~~
~~~ Amy Hawkins of the Guardian: “The damage caused by Donald Trump to the United States’ reputation is creating opportunities for China, particularly with regards to Taiwan, according to a retired senior colonel from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Speaking to the Guardian in Beijing, Zhou Bo said that Trump was damaging the US’s reputation 'more than all of his predecessors combined'. 'By the end of his second term, I believe America’s global image will simply become more tarnished, its international standing will just go down further,' Zhou said. The people of Taiwan 'know that America is going down', which 'might affect their mentality' with regards to China.”
Unilateral Disarmament. Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to halt offensive operations against Russia, according to a current official and two former officials briefed on the secret instructions. The move is apparently part of a broader effort to draw President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia into talks on Ukraine and a new relationship with the United States. Mr. Hegseth’s instructions, part of a larger re-evaluation of all operations against Russia, have not been publicly explained. But they were issued before ... [Donald] Trump’s public blowup in the Oval Office with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Friday.... Retaining access to major Russian networks for espionage purposes is critical to understanding Mr. Putin’s intentions as he enters negotiations, and to tracking the arguments within Russia about what conditions to insist upon and what could be given up.... The retreat from offensive cyberoperations against Russian targets represents a huge gamble.... U.S. officials have said Russia has continued to try to penetrate U.S. networks, including in the first weeks of the Trump administration.” Read on. The Record report, which broke the news, is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is like an 18th-century battle, where the two sides march on each other in formation, then the soldiers on one side suddenly drop their guns and sit down in the field. The story probably won't get a lot of attention unless Russia launches a major cyberattack that affects a lot of Americans, but it's astounding. Trump is not giving up only Ukraine to Russia; he's giving up the U.S. And oddly, it's contrary to his usual strong-man fakery. Putin has fought a bloody war against Ukraine, but he never had to fire a shot against the U.S. ~~~
~~~ Victor Goury-Laffont of Politico: “French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot voiced his confusion over reports that the United States' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a halt of offensive cyber operations against Russia.... The French minister said European Union countries 'are constantly the targets' of Russian cyberattacks.... Both French diplomatic officials and President Emmanuel Macron have repeatedly accused Russia of engaging in hybrid warfare against France through cyberattacks. 'Russia is attacking us on information, cyber,' Macron said last month, claiming that Moscow was seeking to 'destabilize our democracies.'”
Edward Wong of the New York Times: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked 'emergency authorities' to bypass Congress and send $4 billion in weapons to Israel, the second time in a month that the Trump administration has skirted the process of congressional approval for sending arms to the country. Mr. Rubio did not explain in a statement announcing the decision on Saturday why he was using an emergency authority. He said only that the Trump administration would 'continue to use all available tools to fulfill America’s longstanding commitment to Israel’s security, including means to counter security threats.' State Department officials told the two congressional committees in the House and Senate that review foreign weapons sales about the emergency declaration on Friday. At least one congressional official privately expressed alarm at the bypassing of the review.”
Some Would Be Heroes. John Hudson of the Washington Post: “A senior career official at the U.S. Agency for International Development was placed on leave Sunday on the same day he disseminated a detailed memo to staff describing the U.S. government’s 'failure' to provide lifesaving assistance around the world because of actions by ... Donald Trump’s political appointees. The memo, by Nicholas Enrich, the acting assistant administrator for global health, contradicts claims by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that a functioning system is in place for exempting lifesaving assistance from the aid freeze imposed by Trump on his first week in office. 'USAID’s failure to implement lifesaving humanitarian assistance under the waiver is the result of political leadership,' says the memo, obtained by The Washington Post. 'This will no doubt result in preventable death, destabilization, and threats to national security on a massive scale,' the memo says.... Sen. Brian Schatz, the top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid, said 'These new details confirm our worst fears: the illegal and systematic dismantling of USAID will cause real suffering and deaths that are entirely preventable.'” The NBC News report is here. ~~~
~~~ Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw foreign aid and dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development is likely to cause enormous human suffering, according to estimates by the agency itself. Among them: up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year, and as many as 166,000 additional deaths; 200,000 children paralyzed with polio annually, and hundreds of millions of infections; one million children not treated for severe acute malnutrition, which is often fatal, each year; more than 28,000 new cases of such infectious diseases as Ebola and Marburg every year. Those stark projections were laid out in a series of memos by Nicholas Enrich, acting assistant administrator for global health at U.S.A.I.D.... Mr. Enrich was placed on administrative leave on Sunday.” ~~~
~~~ Enrich's memo is here, via the New York Times. This is a gift link.
Corruption? What Corruption? Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: “Cryptocurrency prices surged Sunday after ... Donald Trump heralded the creation of a national 'reserve' for a variety of cryptocurrencies, from bitcoin to lesser-known digital tokens. On his Truth Social platform, Trump said a 'Crypto Strategic Reserve' would help ensure 'the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World.'... Solana, the underlying blockchain platform for what are known as meme coins, including the president’s official $TRUMP token, rose 26 percent. The Trump coin was up more than 34 percent.... Jason Furman, a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama, was among the skeptics who criticized the idea. 'Torn as to whether this is more dumb or more corrupt,' he said on X.” In his post, Trump accused the Biden administration of “corrupt attacks” on the “critical [crypto] industry.” CNBC's story is here.
Corruption? What Corruption? Wes Davis of the Verge: “Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday ordered staff 'to begin finding tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal' to upgrade air traffic control communications, anonymous sources have told Rolling Stone. The story follows reports that Starlink may be taking the job from Verizon, which already has a multibillion-dollar contract with the government to improve the system. According to Rolling Stone, the talks 'have mostly, if not entirely, been delivered verbally,' something its sources say is 'unusual for a matter like this.' One person the outlet spoke with suggested that it looked like 'someone does not want a paper trail.' Rolling Stone says it’s not clear whether the Verizon contract has ended yet, nor if any Starlink deal is official. Starlink is a subsidiary of SpaceX, which DOGE head Elon Musk owns.... Musk insisted last week that Verizon’s system was 'breaking down very rapidly' and putting flyers at risk. He later corrected himself, noting the Verizon system is 'not yet operational' and that the one he was criticizing 'was made [MB: by??] L3 Harris.' He also claimed Starlink is providing terminals for free to 'restore air traffic control connectivity.'”
Naftali Bendavid of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk portray themselves as near-absolutists when it comes to free speech.... But since taking office, the president has mounted what critics call his own sweeping attack on freedom of expression. Some of it aims to stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion and what he terms 'radical gender ideology.' Some of it is aimed at media organizations whose language he dislikes. In other cases, the attacks target opponents who have spoken sharply about the administration. Together, critics — and in some cases, judges — have said Trump’s efforts ... threaten the First Amendment rights of private groups and individuals.... Trump’s orders banning DEI efforts threaten organizations receiving federal money if they advocate for diversity and inclusion. That violates the First Amendment, a judge said recently, because it targets 'viewpoints the government wishes to punish and, apparently, attempt to extinguish.'... District Judge Adam Adelson ... [called the anti-DEI orders] '... textbook viewpoint-based discrimination.' The administration has appealed the ruling.”
Paige Skinner of the Huffington Post: “Elon Musk ... wrote on social media that he agrees the United States should leave NATO and the United Nations. On Saturday, Musk quote-tweeted 'I agree' to a post from someone who wrote, 'It’s time to leave NATO and the UN.'... Martin Paasi, a member of the Finnish parliament, responded to Musk’s post, writing, 'I don’t think anyone will trust the US government for the next few decades.'... 'And you know, I hate to tell you this about NATO if we ever needed their help, let’s say we were attacked, I don’t believe they’d be there,' Trump said in January at a Las Vegas rally. 'I don’t believe. I know the people. I know them. I can tell you country by country who would be there and who – but I don’t believe they’d be there.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trump is so damned ignorant that he doesn't seem to know that the ONLY time NATO has invoked Article 5 -- its collective defense clause -- was in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. That is, the U.S. is the ONLY country in the 75-year history of the alliance that has directly benefited from Article 5. Not Denmark, not the U.K. not Germany, not France. Screw these dumb-assed SOBs.
Fenit Nirappil & Elana Gordon of the Washington Post: “Texas’s worst measles eruption in three decades has surged to 146 known cases, with the true toll likely much higher, exposing how under-vaccinated communities are unnecessarily vulnerable to one of the world’s most contagious diseases, experts say.... The life-threatening outbreak in West Texas starkly illustrates the stakes of slipping immunization rates and the ascension of vaccine skeptics, including Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to the highest levels of the public health establishment. And it has revealed how fear and the scientifically false claims of the anti-vaccine movement have seeped into communities such as Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, hardening attitudes about vaccines, pro and con, in the face of a dangerous, preventable disease.... While most children with measles recover, as many as 1 in 20 develop pneumonia, according to the CDC....
“In an op-ed published Sunday on the Fox News website, Kennedy called on parents to discuss measles shots with their health-care providers. 'The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,' Kennedy wrote. 'Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.'”
~~~ Marie: Wait, wait. Doesn't Kennedy's second sentence contradict the first? How can a decision that affects the entire community be a "personal" one. Besides, Texas law requires children to get a measles vaccine before entering school, so obviously even backward Texas legislator think vaccines are a necessity for integration into the community. ~~~
~~~ Teddy Rosenbluth of the New York Times: “In a first test of the Trump administration’s ability to respond to an infectious disease emergency, its top health official has shied away from one of the government’s most important tools, experts said on Sunday: loudly and directly encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated.... If the Texas outbreak offers a window into the Trump administration’s approach to public health, it spells trouble for the future, some researchers said.... Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, was widely criticized as minimizing the measles outbreak in West Texas at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. In a social media post on Friday, he took a new tack, saying that the outbreak was a 'top priority' for his department, Health and Human Services. He noted various ways in which the department is aiding Texas, among them by funding the state’s immunization program and updating advice that doctors give children vitamin A. But on neither occasion did Mr. Kennedy himself advise Americans to make sure their children got the shots. On Sunday night, he edged closer in an opinion piece for Fox News.... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, part of H.H.S., did not send its first substantive notice about the outbreak until Thursday, almost a month after the first cases in Texas were reported.... Over the years, [Kennedy] has suggested that the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella was associated with autism and that measles outbreaks were mostly 'fabricated' to fatten drug makers’ profits.”
Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: “Congress has less than two weeks to extend federal spending laws and keep the government open, but now a clash over ... Donald Trump’s attempt to seize powers the Constitution delegates to lawmakers threatens to stall talks and force a shutdown. Republican negotiators walked away from talks over the weekend to reach a deal on a top-line number on how much the federal government should spend for the rest of the 2025 fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30. Democrats had said that number is irrelevant if Trump refuses to spend the money in accordance with the law — or if he empowers billionaire Elon Musk and his U.S. DOGE Service to terminate federal contracts and lay off tens of thousands of federal workers without regard to Congress’s wishes.... Democrats say they want assurances from congressional Republican and the White House that the administration will actually spend the money included in any new law preventing a shutdown.”
Maya Miller of the New York Times: “Rather than boycott President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, some Democratic lawmakers are inviting former federal workers to the speech on Tuesday as a way to protest the mass firings and funding cuts that have defined Mr. Trump’s first month back in office.”
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Reader Comments (14)
Little new here, but a good summary of what we've known for a long time about the Pretender-Putin Axis of Evil:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-2-2025
Ordering the immediate cessation of cyber operations against the Russians is nothing less than a huge thumbs up to Putin to fuck with us with zero pushback.
What that fat fuck and his drunken TV host Sec of Defense don’t think about is the fact that Putin wants much more than to screw with elections to help the Party of Traitors.
The Fat fuck only thinks as far out as the next Fox News cycle. Putin is like Karla, the master chief of KGB operations in John le Carré‘s books about the Cold War. He thinks long term and he wants to make sure if Fat Hitler loses his power base in the next election, Russia will still have a huge leg up in cyber warfare. He is interested in getting inside US defense operations, our power grid, the media, and banking and financial operations. Fat Hitler thinks of the two of them as brothers in the world wide battle against “woke” and all the little people who don’t recognize their superiority.
This is far worse than giving the scorpion a ride in your back across the river. This is giving the scorpion your boat and letting him invite all his scorpion relatives safe passage to your homeland while you get washed away.
We are being led by a dense piece of shit and all his equally stoopid turds.
Treason is one thing. This is complete capitulation on a scale never before seen in human history. Thanks again, Mitch. Thank you John Roberts. Thank you Both Sides media. And a big thanks to registered voters who stayed home because what does it matter? They’re all the same.
Think about this. Here’s how bad it is.
Fat Hitler got every one of his rogue’s gallery of stupendously unqualified loyalists, cranks, crooks, and schemers confirmed as part of his Cabinet of Dr. Caligari except a drug fueled child molester and sex trafficker.
As long as you weren’t that low, you too could get a seat at the table and help carve up America like a fat Thanksgiving Turkey for easy consumption by enemies foreign and domestic. And just for laughs, you can oversee the return of deadly diseases that were completely eradicated decades ago, and help destroy the planet while you’re at it.
One stop shopping for the worst of the worst of humanity.
And not to be overly recondite, for those of you not up on German Expressionist cinema from 100 years ago (what’s wrong with you!?), my reference to the seminal horror film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is far more apt than you might think.
Robert Wiene’s tale of madness and mayhem involves a deranged doctor who uses hypnosis on a weak minded sleepwalker (usually referred to as Cesare the Somnambulist), sending this zombie-like character out to murder his enemies. It really couldn’t get much closer to our current situation. Here we have an entire party and huge media industry all hypnotized into MAGA madness, dispatched to attack the master’s enemies.
“The Cabinet” has a lot to say about the psychosis of those under the spell of violent authoritarianism. The expressionistic visuals depict the natural world transformed into a nightmarish landscape of warped and twisted streets, buildings, walls, where even normal objects can be turned into weapons for the delusional. Sound familiar?
You can take a peek at the look of the film here. But really, all you have to do is turn on your TV to see the daily horror unleashed by our very own Fat Caligari.
Horror is the word.
Justin Glawe, in The Bulwark substack,
Vulture Capitalism Comes for Democracy
"I’ve been thinking a lot about the plight of America’s newspapers since Donald Trump returned to the presidency—and not because of the way some major newspapers have been yanked toward Trump-friendliness. No, I’ve been struck by something else. To anyone who has worked in a newsroom, the Trump administration’s dismantling of government—supposedly in the pursuit of cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse”—has a very familiar smell to it. It’s the stench of the kind of vulture capitalism that has demolished newsrooms across the country in a quest for greater revenue for shareholders."
Marie writes: “Wait, wait. Doesn't Kennedy's second sentence contradict the first? How can a decision that affects the entire community be a ‘personal’ one?”
Quite.
In two sentences we can see the unresolvable issue.
We are witnessing the complete dissolution of the social compact, an agreement no less powerful for its being largely tacit, which assumes an understanding that, as a society, we are all more or less reliant on each other to maintain a set of laws and standards in the public domain.
The Party of Traitors, for a generation or more, has taken the view that individuals can do what they like, and sure, “rugged individualism” has been a mainstay of American social thought pretty much since there was an America. The difference now is that, in the Age of Trump, this has come to mean that no laws should constrain the MAGAts. Concern for others? Crap. Fuck them. All that matters is What I Want!
Now the typical response to even the vaguest suggestion that we should be reliant on one another to hold things together (in other words, an expectation that laws and ethical behavior should temper the worst personal instincts) is somehow communist in nature. But we as a species would have died out long ago had we not banded together under a set of laws and standards whereby all members of the group had a certain expectation of outcomes, protection, and responsibility.
None of that applies in MAGA world. Responsibility is for Democrats. Assholes like Polio Bob and Fat Hitler are free to do whatever they like. If your kid dies so Polio Bob can be satisfied that his personal belief system wins out, tough luck, pal.
No worries. We are already the "crypto capital of the world."
How do I know? Because our leader meets two out of three of the American Heritage Dictionary's meanings of "crypto."
"One who covertly supports a certain doctrine, group, or party.
A secret supporter or follower."
But now that there's no more "covert" or "secret" about the Pretender's alliance with Putin, do we no longer have any hope of becoming a crypto-country?
Too bad. We were well on the way.
Harry Truman
"Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home — but not for housing. They are strong for labor — but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage — the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all — but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine — for people who can afford them. They consider electrical power a great blessing — but only when the private power companies get their rake-off. They think American standard of living is a fine thing — so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire of Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it."
Ukraine, picture is worth a thousand words.
Put it in writing.
Some advice for government workers.
Sam Halpert
"No one wants a paper trail because spending funds Congress has not appropriated is colloquially known as “stealing from the US Treasury.”"
It is annoying to watch and read most of the journalists and commentators and even experts buy in so fully to the bullshit narrative that Fat Hitler and Lex Luther are selling about government savings. As some of the articles above point out we and the world get a lot out of the spending and workers that they are axing right now. One million starving kids fed is a net positive for the world and for those that give the aid. The park rangers create added value, the weather scientists create added value, the nuclear inspectors create added value. The aid workers getting food to starving children create added value. They also create goodwill around the world, they contract with US companies that make the food and employ people in America. The knowledge that they are doing real tangible good makes those workers' lives better. All that is gone now because Republicans want "savings" even if it makes us poorer in every conceivable way. Republicans and the press talk about these cuts as if we don't get anything in return for the programs and workers that being cut. But we are, or were, getting great value for the work so many of these people did on our behalf and for our benefit. That is being destroyed in front of our eyes and the cost to us and the world and our future is incalculable.
Seems like we could use a few examples of good ol' fashion FU action.
Carlos Slim, Mexican billionaire who built his empire on telecomms across Latin America, flips the bird to the Tech Tyrant:
"Elon Musk shared a post on his social network stating that Slim could have ties to criminal groups, and five minutes later, Carlos Slim canceled all business collaborations with Starlink in Latin America, which made Musk lose 7 billion US dollars.
An hour later, Slim announced that he would transfer his projects for the next 5 years with Starlink, an investment of 22 billion dollars, to companies in China and Europe."
If only America's rich would have any values over their attachment to the mighty dollar.
https://mexicodailypost.com/2025/02/24/carlos-slim-orders-to-cancel-his-collaboration-with-elon-musks-starlink/#google_vignette
ICE
"‘Like a horror movie’: German tourist detained by ICE says she spent week in solitary confinement
German consulate working to get tattoo artist released"
Dystopia
"DHS Now Allows for Surveillance based on Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity
If you or your loved ones are part of the LGBTQ community, there are steps you should take to protect yourself."