Russian Imperialism Meets Manifest Idiocy
Is the USA joining the 21st Century Axis of Evil?
In the war between Russia and Ukraine, the first country to surrender appears to have been the United States of America.
The Trump administration has interrupted the supply of armament and ammunition to Ukraine, initiated efforts to lift sanctions, fired top CIA/FBI Counterintelligence professionals, green-lighted the reopening of consulates, paused cyber-offensive operations, and ordered the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to shift its priorities away from Russia.
Those who see this surrender in military terms are missing the point. Our government’s leader is building a connection with an entity that has no use for democracy and a powerful cultural movement to destroy the liberal notions of the post-feudal world.
The Drudge Report paired a photo of an approving Vladimir Putin with the headline "TRUMPSKI STOPS UKRAINE AID."
Needless to say, the Russians are thrilled.
Last week, appearing on the state TV show 60 Minutes, State Duma member Oleg Morozov gushed: “You know, what’s great and interesting about politics is that sometimes, your wildest hopes in anticipation of important events can be far surpassed by reality.”
Moscow’s talking heads are in awe of the speed with which the transatlantic relations are unraveling from Trump’s new policies. They continue to be thrilled with his cabinet picks, although the already-considerable popularity of new Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is now being surpassed by that for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. During One’s Own Truth on Valentine’s Day, multiple pundits described Hegseth as their favorite spokesman in the Trump administration for promising concessions to Russia even before the negotiations had started.
A statement from the Russian Government praised the Trump foreign policy agenda: "The new U.S. Administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely coincides with our vision."
State TV host Olga Skabeeva said that Ukraine hasn't even been discussed at the meetings between Russian and U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia. according to Putin.
In the Riyadh sessions, Russian officials reportedly told Secretary of State Marco Rubio that U.S. companies lost more than $300 billion after they left Russia, and that the Kremlin would be happy to arrange lucrative concessions on rare earth minerals and Arctic access for the United States if Moscow gets what it wants in Ukraine.
There are already discussions in the administration about reducing U.S. forces in Europe, specifically twenty thousand, the same number as were added by President Biden during his term. Although it’s likely a Trump administration could do more damage by staying in NATO and being obstructionist, the notion of leaving that alliance is now being pushed by none other than Elon Musk.
I guess that’s why San Diego area Congressman Darrell Issa announced his nomination of the President for the Nobel Peace Prize after a mere five weeks in office.
Looking back…
The most important thing to remember is that Ukraine, along with Belarus and Kazakhstan in 1994 gave up their nuclear arsenals in return for security guarantees from the United States, the UK, France, China and Russia. At the time the warheads on Ukraine’s soil amounted to the third largest nuclear force on the planet.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is ultimately about fulfilling Vadimir Putin’s dream of re-establishing the historical empire, based on a religious-based belief in a manifest destiny going back to the 15th century. At the time figures in the Russian Orthodox Church envisioned their nation as the third incarnation of the Roman empire.
The Trump-Russia connection…
President Donald Trump has turned the most damning insinuation against him into a big part of the Big Lie with the phrase “Russia, Russia, Russia.”
As far back as 1987, when he dropped nearly a hundred grand buying full page ads in major newspapers denouncing allies of the United States (and NATO specifically), Trump has maintained that the military alliances stemming from WWII are unfair to the U.S.
The former head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence service, Alnur Mussayev, recently claimed in a Facebook post that Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987, when the 40-year-old real-estate mogul first visited Moscow. A couple of other ex-KGB agents have also made the claim, but the claims lack substance.
Yesterday’s announcement that the U.S. was cutting off already authorized arms shipments to Ukraine, wasn’t the first time he’s done this. Lost in the fog of the MAGA revision of history are all the impeachment proceedings of 2019, when President Trump was caught asking Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden.
There is also the Special Counsel’s investigation into the circumstances surrounding interference with the 2016 election. In the redacted version of the Mueller Report there is no proof of ties between Trump personally and the Russian intelligence operations of that time period.
There was plenty of evidence of a cover up, revealed through 37 indictments; seven guilty pleas or convictions; compelling evidence that the president obstructed justice on multiple occasions, and 14 criminal matters referred to other components of the Department of Justice.
Marcy Wheeler, whose documentation and analysis of the Trump administration’s actions is top shelf, dug into CNN’s denial of the assertion that Vladimir Putin’s relationship with the president is more than it seems.
CNN asserted there’s no evidence to back the claim that Trump is “beholden to Putin” in spite of the fact that Russia helped Trump win in 2016, after which Dmitriev reached out and discussed a bunch of investments — investments which would require ending sanctions — as a way to improve relations. CNN asserted there’s no evidence to back the claim that Trump is “beholden to Putin” in spite of the fact that Russia attempted to help Trump win in 2020 at least by sending disinformation framing Joe Biden and his kid via Russian agent Andrii Derkach to Trump’s personal lawyer. CNN asserted there’s no evidence to back the claim that Trump is “beholden to Putin” in spite of the fact that Derkach made similar efforts in 2024, and a bunch of Russian malign influence efforts (possibly including bomb threats that forced the evacuation of Democratic precincts) similarly aimed to help Trump and others who would “oppose aid to Ukraine.”
CNN asserted there’s no evidence to back the claim that Trump is “beholden to Putin” in spite of the fact that a key Putin advisor, Nikolay Patrushev, said this in November:
In his future policies, including those on the Russian track US President-elect Donald Trump will rely on the commitments to the forces that brought him to power, rather than on election pledges, Russian presidential aide Nikolay Patrushev told the daily Kommersant in an interview.
“The election campaign is over,” Patrushev noted. “To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.”
If those “certain forces” aren’t getting payback now, I don’t know what to say.
U.S. Mint takes Jan. 6 coin honoring officers who protected the Capitol off its website via Ryan Reilly at NBC News
Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who was injured by the mob on Jan. 6, told NBC News that he tried to purchase a number of the replica medals this week, planning to hand them out as gifts, and was surprised to see they were no longer available.
Gonell said the erasure of the medals fits in a broader pattern, pointing to the failure of Congress to place a memorial for law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol up in the building before Trump's second inauguration last month.
Justice Department webpages that listed the cases and featured summaries of the work of the federal prosecutors who brought Jan. 6 cases were also removed from the web after Trump took office.
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Social Security has never missed a payment. DOGE actions threaten ‘interruption of benefits,’ ex-agency head says by Lorie Konish at CNBC
Yet experts say the benefits Americans rely on could be at risk based on the Trump administration’s overhaul of the agency.
“The American public needs to understand that one of their major social safety nets is in dire jeopardy,” said Jill Hornick, a union official at the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1395, which primarily represents Social Security offices in Illinois.
“It’ll take a while for the effects to be felt, but they’re coming,” Hornick said, predicting what will happen to Social Security is going to be “far worse” than the planned cuts to Medicaid.
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Facebook Cybertruck Owners Group Copes With Relentless Mockery by Jason Koebler at 404 Media
Backlash to Cybertrucks is quite widespread at the moment, as Elon Musk guts the federal government, aligns himself with far-right movements, and awards himself government contracts. “Tesla Takedown” protests have been organized at dealerships and showrooms all over the country. Nine people were arrested at a Manhattan Tesla dealership protest Saturday; a Tesla showroom in Owings Mills, Maryland was graffitied with “NO MUSK” and a swastika with an X through it, and a woman was arrested for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership in Colorado. Monday, a Tesla Supercharger in Massachusetts was set on fire; authorities there say they believe the fire was set intentionally.
All of this has made owning a Cybertruck unpleasant, as is the point of these protests. The overall sentiment in the Cybertruck Facebook owners group is hard to nail down, but many owners are leaning into the hate, chalking it up to something only “crazed” or “brainwashed” “libs” are doing, something only “poor” people who are “jealous” are doing, or various other forms of cope and seethe. A thread about a driver in a Ford Fiesta flicking off a Cybertruck is primarily about how Ford Fiestas are cheap, whereas Cybertrucks are expensive.
