Hello Dante? What Level Is This?

[ti-amie]

Diplomacy dies on live TV as Trump and Vance gang up to bully Ukraine leader
US president said his horrific blow-up would make ‘great television’ – the White House has never seen anything like it


David Smith in Washington
Fri 28 Feb 2025 21.52 CET

“This is going to be great television,” Donald Trump remarked at the end. Sure. And as they slipped into the icy depths, the captain of the Titanic probably assured his passengers that this would make a great movie some day.

Trump on Friday presided over one of the greatest diplomatic disasters in modern history. Tempers flared, voices were raised and protocol was shredded in the once-hallowed Oval Office. As Trump got into a shouting match with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a horrified Europe watched the post-second world war order crumble before its eyes.

Never has a US president bullied and berated an adversary, still less an ally, in such a public way. Of course the reality TV star and wrestling fan turned US president had it all play out on television for the benefit of his populist support base – and a certain bare-chested chum in the Kremlin.

Zelenskyy came to the White House to sign a deal for US involvement in Ukraine’s mineral industry to pave the way for an end to the three-year war. The president has inspired many by refusing to flee Kyiv when Russia launched its invasion – “I need ammunition, not a ride” – delivering nightly addresses to rally his people and visiting his troops on the frontlines.

But Trump, a profile in courage who dodged military service in Vietnam because of alleged bone spurs and who hid in the White House during the 6 January 2021 riot, has reportedly described soldiers who die in combat as suckers and losers. He was impeached for trying to strong-arm Zelenskyy in 2019 and last week called him a dictator.

There was a hint of trouble to come when Zelenskyy arrived at the West Wing wearing a dark, long-sleeved shirt – not a suit – and Trump greeted him with a handshake and sarcasm: “Wow, look, you’re all dressed up!”

Inside the Oval Office, which has seen much but never anything quite like this, Zelenskyy thanked Trump for the invitation. At first all was sweetness and light as they fielded questions from reporters.

There was a minor wrinkle over how much Europe support has given Ukraine, which ended with smiles, a playful but pointed tap on Zelenskyy, and ominous words from Trump: “Don’t argue with me.”

But the last 10 minutes of the nearly 45-minute meeting devolved into acrimony and chaos. Zelenskyy found himself ambushed by Trump and his serpentine vice-president, JD Vance. He was expected to sit back and take a beating from Nurse Ratched and Miss Trunchbull. He refused.

Exuding preternatural obnoxiousness, Vance said Joe Biden’s approach had failed and that diplomacy was the way forward. Noting Russia’s betrayals of trust in the past, Zelenskyy challenged: “What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What do you mean?”

Vance, who once declared he didn’t care what happened in Ukraine, was riled. Finger jabbing, he lectured Zelenskyy: “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media ... You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”

Uh-oh. The politicians and journalists in the room could surely tell this was going off the rails. At one point the Ukrainian ambassador would put her head in her hands. She was all of us.

Zelenskyy tried to push back, asking if Vance had ever been to Ukraine. Vance got angry and spoke of “propaganda tours”. Zelenskyy tried to answer and suggest that the US could feel threatened by Russia some day. Trump interjected: “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.”

The men spoke over each other. Raising his voice, the US president said: “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now.”

Zelenskyy responded: “I’m not playing cards. I’m very serious, Mr President. I’m the president in a war.”

Trump, pointing an accusing finger and descending into his worst self from the presidential debates, admonished: “You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with world war three and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have.”

TV pro tip: Trump has spent so many campaign rallies warning about world war three that the phrase has lost its shock value.

Trump and Vance tried to scold Zelenskyy like an ungrateful child. Vance – who recently went to Munich to condemn Europe as being on the wrong side in the culture wars – demanded: “Have you said ‘thank you’ once this entire meeting? No.”

Zelenskyy tried to respond. Trump told him his country was in big trouble. He went on: “The problem is I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy and I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States and your people are very brave. But, you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out.

“And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty … But you’re not acting at all thankful, and that’s not a nice thing.”

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless ally!

Zelenskyy looked shellshocked. Trump, the eternal showman, commented on what great TV it would be, then wrote on social media that Zelenskyy “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office”.

No deal was done. A planned press conference was cancelled. Zelenskyy drove away empty-handed, having just endured his own diplomatic Chornobyl. As for the rest of Europe, a bust of Winston Churchill, looming over the shoulders of Trump and Vance, may have shed a tear or two.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... val-office

[Owendonovan]

Trump and Vance can't die soon enough.

[ti-amie]

Brett Meiselas
‪@bmeiselas.bsky.social‬
You know we could've just been going about our lives as the economy steadily grew, our alliances continued to be strong, and we didn't have to worry about a psychopath running the country every day

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

This happened too.






ETA: About this "journalist"

urthusband81
•
11m ago
Yes, let’s call out this “journalist” by name - Brian Glenn. Absolutely despicable, but that is to be expected when lying with pigs … literally.

DingGratz

This is MTG's boyfriend who didn't seem to give a (expletive) about fElon wearing t-shirts to the Oval Office.

I'm beginning to think that maybe this was a set up, a show for someone thousands of miles away.

[ti-amie]

krustykrab2193
•
6h ago
nepo pissbaby
Profile Badge for the Achievement Top 1% Commenter Top 1% Commenter
This meeting between Zelensky and Trump was a set up. Trump, JD Vance, the American government and the rightwing news networks are crafting a narrative to abandon Ukraine. They're claiming that Zelensky is disrespectful to America. They're claiming that Zelensky wants to start World War 3.

The American government invited journalists from propaganda "news" publications who kept attacking Zelensky for no reason. One "journalist", who happens to be GOP Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Green's boyfriend, went so far as to question why Zelensky is so disrespectful to America for not wearing a suit and asked him if he owned any suits.

A Russian propaganda network (TASS) journalist was in the Oval Office too. When it was pointed out that a TASS journalist was there the Press Secretary escorted them out. But they wouldn't explain how a TASS journalist even gained access to the Oval Office at the White House. This occurred when Reuters and the Associated Press have been banned from entering.

They tried to force an angry reaction from Zelesnky for propaganda purposes. This was all a show so that America can support Russia.

This is an absolute disgrace. America is abandoning the liberal democratic world order, America is threatening the sovereignty of their closest allies, and they're sucking up to Russia.

The above was a response to this post.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ponchi101]

I remember people asking for receipts about Tiny's relationship with Vlad.

...

Agree. But that he has a relationship with Russia, and it is incredibly favorable to the USSR (that is what Putin thinks of Russia) is obvious. My question was about the Kasak claim that he was an asset of the KGB since 1987. That is the one that needs more proof.
About the entire Zelensky thing:
YAIT.
WAIT (easy enough to figure out).

[ti-amie]

Fred Wellman‬ ‪@fpwellman.bsky.social‬
·
1m



This is insane. They are going to destroy the entire planet.

[ti-amie]

Trump expands retribution campaign against law firms that aided his foes
Trump hit another major law firm that worked for his political rivals with an executive order seeking to limit its ability to work for the U.S. government.

Updated
March 6, 2025 at 7:20 p.m. EST today at 7:20 p.m. EST

By Perry Stein and Michael Birnbaum

Donald Trump on Thursday targeted another elite law firm that has represented clients he considers his political enemies, sending a forceful message that he is willing to punish firms who work for people or groups that oppose his administration’s agenda.

In an Oval Office ceremony, the president signed an executive order hitting the large international law firm Perkins Coie with a sweeping directive that bans the federal government from hiring it, or from using contractors who work with it, except in limited circumstances. The order also bars Perkins Coie employees from entering federal buildings and suspends their security clearances.

The firm represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential race, and it also contracted with the research firm that produced the now-discredited opposition dossier that alleged extensive contacts between Trump and Russia.

The move could have a chilling effect on law firms’ willingness to take on clients and cases that run counter to the Trump administration, challenging a fundamental tenet of the rule of law in the United States that everyone should have access to legal representation, experts said.

“This is an absolute honor to sign,” Trump said from his Oval Office desk.

A spokesman for Perkins Coie said in a statement that the executive order is “patently unlawful, and we intend to challenge it.”

A White House official said the move targeted Perkins Coie because of its track record on Trump.

“The president doesn’t believe they should have the privileges afforded to companies of their stature to work and operate with the federal government, since they have made it very clear they are vehemently against the president of the United States, and their work proves that,” a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about the sensitive decision-making behind the order.

“If this case was retribution or anti-Democrat, anti-liberal, then we would basically pull the security clearance clearances of every law firm on K Street, because they all hate the president,” the official said. “This law firm in particular has shown a level of bias in which their coordination with the federal government was done so in an illegal fashion that was purposely intended on undermining the president of the United States and really locking him up.”

Perkins Coie is the second law firm Trump has taken action against or decried as engaging “in the weaponization of the judicial process.”

Last week, he ordered the suspension of security clearances of some attorneys at Covington & Burling, which has represented special counsel Jack Smith pro bono. Smith led the federal investigations of Trump for allegedly mishandling classified materials and trying to block the 2020 election results.

Trump’s orders targeting the law firms called for limiting their access to federal resources and could have the effect of dissuading other private law firms from battling the Trump administration in court.

The American legal system relies on attorneys representing all sorts of clients, including violent criminals, and the president’s appearing to punish firms for their choice of clients could do grave damage to that system, said Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who often represents whistleblowers.

“By taking these actions against these major law firms, it is effectively sending a message to all the lawyers that you best not challenge this administration, or you, your lawyers and your clients will suffer,” Zaid said. “It is the most un-American thing I’ve ever heard.”

Other experts said the order was part of Trump’s broader campaign against the legal system.

“He doesn’t like judges who rule against him. He doesn’t like prosecutors who prosecuted against him. He doesn’t like lawyers who’ve undertaken measures against him,” said Thomas Carothers, the director of the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “This is part of a broader questioning, and in many cases, an attack on the core institutions of the rule of law.”

But Carothers said that he did not think Trump’s order would bring the U.S. legal system to a halt.

“I don’t think a peer law firm will think, ‘Oh, we shouldn’t bring this enforcement action against this government entity, because we can no longer challenge the U.S. government.’ I think that would be overreading it.”

Perkins Coie became embroiled in what Trump and his allies have repeatedly described as the “Russia hoax” when it contracted with a firm that conducted research about Trump’s connections to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. That contract resulted in the now-famous Steele dossier, a document full of unverified allegations assembled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.

But the two main attorneys involved in that work — Marc E. Elias and Michael Sussmann — are no longer employed by Perkins Coie. Both attorneys are named in a fact sheet explaining Trump’s executive order.

Elias retained Fusion GPS, the Washington firm that ultimately produced the Steele dossier.

Years later, special counsel John Durham — who was assigned to look into possible wrongdoing among federal agents who investigated Trump’s 2016 campaign — charged Sussmann with lying to a senior FBI official during that investigation.

Sussmann was accused of bringing allegations to the FBI of a secret computer communications channel between the Trump organization and Russia-based Alfa Bank. FBI agents investigated the data but concluded that there was nothing suspicious about it.

In 2022, a jury found Sussmann not guilty.

Perkins Coie is one of eight big law firms involved in lawsuits against Trump, according to an American Bar Association Journal article published last week that cited the law firm’s representation of transgender service members who are challenging the administration’s ban on joining the military.

Trump also signed a separate order that could make it harder for opponents to seek injunctions against his administration’s actions by holding them accountable for legal costs if they lose. The Justice Department will ask judges to require plaintiffs who are seeking injunctions and restraining orders against the Trump administration to post a bond to cover court costs should they fail, raising the bar for legal challenges.

When presenting the Perkins Coie executive order to Trump to sign, White House staff secretary Will Scharf said the firm has engaged in “unlawful DEI practices,” referring to diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and accused it of using racial quotas for hiring and promotions.

Scharf said the executive order calls for a “holistic review of unlawful DEI in some of the nation’s largest law firms.”

Although the Supreme Court has banned affirmative action in college admissions, and federal law prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of race, sex and certain other criteria, no law bans diversity and equity efforts within private companies.

Scharf did not explain what the government’s review would entail, which law firms would be examined and what criteria the federal government would use to determine whether a law firm engaged in wrongdoing.

The Trump administration’s move to penalize law firms for their DEI practices when no court has said such programs are illegal “is extraordinary,” said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

“There is no legal definition of excessive DEI. The law itself is so unsettled,” Olson said. “The administration can take positions, but it’s not as if the courts have taken a position and given them a green light and said, ‘Yes, you are right.’”

correction
An earlier version of this article misspelled the last name of a former Perkins Coie attorney. He is Michael Sussmann. This article has been corrected.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... e-dossier/

[ti-amie]

GOP group lambasted for referring to Latino congressman as ‘illegal immigrant’
The National Republican Congressional Committee attacked Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-New York), chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, on its social media account.

March 6, 2025 at 12:17 p.m. EST Today at 12:17 p.m. EST

By Sabrina Rodriguez and Marianna Sotomayor
Democrats roundly condemned a Republican campaign group for falsely characterizing Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-New York) as an “illegal immigrant” on its social media account this week.

The National Republican Congressional Committee’s X account posted Wednesday that “Democrats literally chose an illegal immigrant to give their response to President Trump’s address,” sharing a clip of Espaillat delivering a Spanish-language rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s address Tuesday night before a joint session of Congress.

“This is xenophobic, untrue, and denigrates every immigrant who came here lawfully to pursue the American dream. Pretty disgusting stuff from the NRCC,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wrote on X.

Espaillat, who is chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, came to the United States as a child with his family from the Dominican Republic roughly 60 years ago. He and his family overstayed their tourist visas, leaving them undocumented for about a year until their green card applications were approved. He became a U.S. citizen in his late 20s — more than 40 years ago.

He is the first formerly undocumented immigrant in Congress, a piece of his background he has long proudly shared with the public. His bio on X reads: “Former undocumented immigrant turned progressive Congressman.”

Espaillat said the NRCC’s post puts on display “xenophobic feelings” within the Republican Party.

“It is unfortunate that they’ve taken it this low,” Espaillat told reporters off of the House floor Thursday. “I think it further explains that anybody that doesn’t look like them they consider to be an illegal. It’s tragic.

“If I’m stopped here with my pin and I’m asked if I’m an illegal, I think that’s insulting,” he added, referring to the lapel pin members of Congress wear.

Espaillat then cut off the conversation to go to the House floor for votes.

“You know why I’m gonna vote?” he said as he walked away from reporters. “Because I’m a U.S. citizen.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... mmigrants/

[ponchi101]

Trump expands retribution campaign against law firms that aided his foes
Trump hit another major law firm that worked for his political rivals with an executive order seeking to limit its ability to work for the U.S. government.

...

That is what he said he was going to do. So no surprise here.
He is the most childish person in the world.

[ti-amie]

From the you can't fix stupid files...

Pete Hegseth Mocked After Photos of WWII Bomber Flagged for Removal Because of ‘Gay’ in Its Name: ‘It’s a Plane, Not a Drag Queen!’
Tom Durante Mar 7th, 2025, 2:06 pm

It’s Enola’s revenge.

Critics of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are dropping truth bombs on him after he ordered the purge of images that don’t jive with the Department of Defense’s anti-DEI quest.

Tens of thousands of photos and online posts were listed in what appeared to be a preliminary list of items that run afoul of the DOD’s attempt to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across federal agencies.

The list was obtained by the Associated Press Thursday and confirmed to be legitimate by the U.S. government.

As news of the list broke, those opposing the policy came out swinging.

Among them was The View panelist and CNN political commentator Anna Navarro, who eviscerated Hegseth on Threads.

“It’s a plane, not a drag queen,” she wrote.

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova, journalist Yashar Ali, and novelist Paul Rudnick were also among those speaking out.

The Enola Gay was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the bomber’s pilot, Col. Paul Tibbets.

Other targeted materials included photos of the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation’s first Black military pilots; an all-female C-17 crew during Women’s History Month; and images of Medal of Honor recipient Pfc. Harold Gonsalves.

A routine Army Corps of Engineers project was flagged — apparently because an engineer in the photo had the last name “Gay.”

The Pentagon’s scramble to comply with the president’s executive order has led to widespread confusion, according to the Associated Press.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/pete-hegs ... rag-queen/