cicero venatio
2025-03-04 03:06:06 UTC
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PermalinkWhile there might not yet be riots in the streets of
America the MAGA manifestation of insurrection
protesters disrupting Vice President JD Vances ski
vacation in Sugarbush, Vermont, is a nice start. A
nation may have finally and irreversibly had its eyes
popped wide open to the existential threat of the
fascists who would be king and princeling.
Crowds protesting Vice President JD Vance lined
roadways near a Vermont ski resort where he planned
to vacation with his family. Many of the hundreds of
demonstrators held signs in support of Ukraine, the
day after an Oval Office blowout over Ukraine. (AP
Video / March 2, 2025)
Even as statesmen knelt at the White House prayer
railing last week, bearing gifts and flattery for an
ego that can never be satiated, the ground has
cracked beneath Trumps feet. And to think: He
orchestrated this profound diminishment, this
implosion, with Vance as a greasy sock puppet. What
was staged as a tableau of hard-fisted prepotency got
turned on its ear, inside-outed, exposing the monster
beneath the skin. Only Trump can take down Trump.
America might never be great again. America might
never be forgiven.
A week that began with the U.S. voting against a
United Nations resolution condemning Russia as the
aggressor in the ongoing war against Ukraine
aligning with the likes of North Korea, Haiti,
Belarus and, to its eternal shame, Israel ended
with Trump booting Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the
White House, rendering the Ukrainian president a hero
of even more historic magnificence, on the heels of
an astonishingly venomous tête-à-tête-à-tête in full
view of the media.
Trump thereafter boarded Air Force One and flew to
his Mar-a-Lago citadel to play golf. Zelenskyy flew
to the U.K. to work on a plan for peace.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy leaves the
White House without a deal for U.S. access to that
country's rare earth minerals. (AP Video / Feb. 28,
2025)
Cue the lickspittles. All the Trump-cowed pols
falling into subservient compliance, including those
who, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Sen.
Lindsey Graham, had been among the staunchest
supporters of Ukraine. Heres the hoop, jump through
it.
And, of course, for Trump its acutely personal
hes still fuming over his impeachment, first time
around, for that phone call pressuring Zelenskyy to
dig up dirt on Joe Biden before the 2020 election.
Fifty minutes with cameras rolling is all it took to
completely upend the U.S.-Ukraine alliance, capsize
the postwar U.S.-led world order and imperil NATO.
But with stunning swiftness, in the wake of that
performative pantomime, much of the world, all of
Americas allies, came immediately to the defence of
Zelenskyy and his war-battered country. Postings of
support came from Germany, France, the U.K., Austria,
Spain, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Slovenia,
Moldova, the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg,
Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Czech Republic,
Finland, Portugal, Belgium, Croatia, Romania,
Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier: The scene
in the White House yesterday took my breath away. I
would never have believed that we would one day have
to protect Ukraine from the U.S.A.
French President Emmanuel Macron: There is an
aggressor, which is Russia and a people who have
suffered aggression, which is Ukraine. We all were
right to have helped Ukraine and sanctioned Russia
three years ago, and to continue to do so.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: Its not just about
Ukraine. Its about the rules and the values and the
principles of sovereignty, of independence, of
territorial integrity that protects every country in
the world.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will
continue to support Ukraine following a summit he
attended in London focused on preventing further
Russian aggression. He also says national sovereignty
is a matter of importance for Canadians and for his
Monday audience with King Charles. (Mar. 2, 2025 /
The Canadian Press)
A deafening silence, sadly, from Barack Obama, Bill
Clinton, George W. Bush and Joe Biden.
Disgrace is an overused word. But Trump covered
himself in disgrace and covered America in ignominy.
At the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin must have been
crowing. But its a hurdle-obstructed victory lap for
the indicted war criminal. The best thing that came
out of that jaw-dropping ambush of Zelenskyy is that
he departed the Oval Office without signing a
shakedown agreement that would have given the U.S.
what Trump says is $500 billion worth of Ukraines
minerals just as Trump covets Canadas minerals and
natural resources, the real impetus behind his
hogwash threat of annexation.
A contemptible deal that would have handed Putin the
victory he hasnt been able to attain in three years
of mutually destructive combat, the attrition so
severe for Russia that it has had to deploy 10,000
North Korean troops to the front lines last year. A
minerals-for-security pact that included no security
guarantees to protect Ukraine from another Russian
invasion. To no avail, Zelenskyy reminded Trump and
Vance of Putins history of unreliability respecting
international agreements, pointing to Russias
violation of a 2019 ceasefire in eastern Ukraine
wherein Kyiv gave up its nuclear weapons for
dismantling in exchange for Russia respecting its
sovereignty.
Yes, of course I want to stop the war, stressed
Zelenskyy, over the tag-team bullying and berating
from Trump and his corner cutman Vance. But, as Ive
said to you, with guarantees. Ask our people about
the ceasefire, what do they think?
The world has rarely seen a duo as craven as Trump
and Vance, extortionist gangster hoodlums.
In just over five weeks of his 2.0 presidency, Trump
has unleashed an almost daily gush of hellfire, a
revelation if any was needed of the contempt in
which he holds democratic institutions and the
Constitution, characterized by ghastly appointments,
incessant chaos, sycophants rewarded, elevation of
incompetents, avowals of disastrous tariffs pending
and naked aggression.
What were witnessing is the downward spiral of
America in real time. Whereas Trump had scripted
himself as de facto bringer of peace doubtless
envisioning a Nobel Prize he has instead etched in
acid his obsequiousness to Putin, his depth of
immorality and self-restraint thin as onion paper. He
may not actually be a Manchurian president for Russia
but he certainly played one on TV on Friday.
Oh, the MAGA constituency reveres him still. But this
is not what Americans voted for when they threw in
their electoral lot with Trump and Vance and not a
single ballot for Elon Musk, kings fool. And this
dance of the dialectic around the Trump maypole has
another 192 weeks to run. What will be left of
American honour by then?
Zelenskyy, in his usual military threads not a
dress-down gesture of disrespect emerged with his
integrity and valour intact while Trump was a shrill
shrunken head.
You got to be more thankful, because, let me tell
you, you dont have the cards, Trump badgered his
guest. With us, you have the cards, but without us,
you dont have any cards.
Zelenskyy: Im not playing cards. Im very serious,
Mr. President. Im very serious.
He left a rage-flushed and busted flat president
behind.