America No Longer Leads The Free World
JD Vance and Donald Trump's obscene display in the Oval Office Friday afternoon, berating Volodomir Zelensky on live global television, torched what little remained of our moral standing.
Credit to the Associated Press (throw them a donation if you can for performing top-notch, non-sycophantic journalism) for this transcript.
Vance: “For four years, the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin, and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country. The path to peace and the path to prosperity is, maybe, engaging in diplomacy. We tried the pathway of Joe Biden, of thumping our chest and pretending that the president of the United States’ words mattered more than the president of the United States’ actions. What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That’s what President Trump is doing.”
Zelenskyy: “Can I ask you?”
Vance: “Sure. Yeah.”
Zelenskyy: “OK. So he (Putin) occupied it, our parts, big parts of Ukraine, parts of east and Crimea. So he occupied it in 2014. So during a lot of years — I’m not speaking about just Biden, but those times was (Barack) Obama, then President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, now President Trump. And God bless, now, President Trump will stop him. But during 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people. You know what the --"
Trump: “2015?”
Zelenskyy: “2014.”
Trump: “Oh, 2014? I was not here.”
Vance: “That’s exactly right.”
Zelenskyy: “Yes, but during 2014 ‘til 2022, the situation is the same, that people have been dying on the contact line. Nobody stopped him. You know that we had conversations with him, a lot of conversations, my bilateral conversation. And we signed with him, me, like, you, president, in 2019, I signed with him the deal. I signed with him, (French President Emmanuel) Macron and (former German Chancellor Angela) Merkel. We signed ceasefire. Ceasefire. All of them told me that he will never go … But after that, he broke the ceasefire, he killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners. But he didn’t do it. What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What do you mean?”
Vance: “I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country. Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
Zelenskyy: “Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have?”
Vance: “I have been to –”
Zelenskyy: “Come once.”
Vance: “I’ve actually watched and seen the stories, and I know that what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President. Do you disagree that you’ve had problems, bringing people into your military?”
Zelenskyy: “We have problems –”
Vance: “And do you think that is respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?”
This is how it began, the day that America’s government officially forfeited its last claim on freedom and democracy, and threw in wholeheartedly with the bullies, the despots, the autocrats, and the oligarchs of the world. The vice-president, asked point blank whether he’d actually come himself to Ukraine, responds by saying he’d “watched and seen the stories,” which says nothing because there’s no way of assessing what stories he’d watched and seen. It was the perfect distillation of the lack of intellectual curiosity this administration has towards anything.
Trump: “He’s not speaking loudly. He’s not speaking loudly. Your country is in big trouble.”
Zelenskyy: “Can I answer —”
Trump: “No, no. You’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble.”
Zelenskyy: “I know. I know.”
Trump: “You’re not winning. You’re not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out OK because of us.”
Zelenskyy: “Mr. President, we are staying in our country, staying strong. From the very beginning of the war, we’ve been alone. And we are thankful. I said thanks.”
Trump: “If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks.”
Zelenskyy: “In three days. I heard it from Putin. In three days.”
Trump: “Maybe less. It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this, I tell you.
Vance: “Just say thank you.”
Zelenskyy: “I said a lot of times, thank you, to American people.”
Vance: “Accept that there are disagreements, and let’s go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the American media when you’re wrong. We know that you’re wrong.”
Trump: “But you see, I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on. I think it’s very important. That’s why I kept this going so long. You have to be thankful.”
Zelenskyy: “I’m thankful.”
Trump: “You don’t have the cards. You’re buried there. People are dying. You’re running low on soldiers. It would be a damn good thing, and then you tell us, ‘I don’t want a ceasefire. I don’t want a ceasefire, I want to go, and I want this.’ Look, if you can get a ceasefire right now, I tell you, you take it so the bullets stop flying and your men stop getting killed.”
Zelenskyy: “Of course we want to stop the war. But I said to you, with guarantees.”
Trump: “Are you saying you don’t want a ceasefire? I want a ceasefire. Because you’ll get a ceasefire faster than an agreement.”
Zelenskyy: “Ask our people about a ceasefire, what they think.”
Trump: “That wasn’t with me. That was with a guy named Biden, who is not a smart person.”
Zelenskyy: “This is your president. It was your president.”
Trump: “Excuse me. That was with Obama, who gave you sheets, and I gave you Javelins. I gave you the Javelins to take out all those tanks. Obama gave you sheets. In fact, the statement is Obama gave sheets, and Trump gave Javelins. You’ve got to be more thankful because let me tell you, you don’t have the cards. With us, you have the cards, but without us, you don’t have any cards.”
Now, mixed in between this incredibly bad Mafia-shakedown-disguised-as-government-policy was the Trump Propaganda Outlets asking the questions, because they were the majority of whom was allowed into the Oval Office. These “reporters” came from “One America News Network” and “Real America’s Voice,” run by Trump toady Steve Bannon. In fact, the RAV “reporter” is a guy named Brian Glenn, the boyfriend of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Here are some of the hard-hitting questions they asked:
“Mr. President, do you think ultimately your legacy will be as The Peacemaker?”
“President Zelensky, why don’t you ever wear a suit when you meet with foreign leaders?”
“Mr. President, you had Macron and Starmer here at the White House this week, both of whom praised your courage and conviction to lead the pathway towards peace. Part of that involved, though, re-engaging with Russia in diplomatic relations, something that previous leaders lacked the conviction to do so. What gave you the moral courage and conviction to step forward and lead?”
If this is journalism, I’m Saint Francis of Assisi.
Those questions started the glide path that led towards the shakedown. Zelensky stood up for the truth, and was kicked out of the White House, with the joint press conference for later canceled, along with the state luncheon. Vance proceeded to appear on Hannity that night on Fox News to proclaim the whole thing “great television.” These are not serious people, and they are fully incapable of dealing with serious problems.
This, of course, was just an appetizer for today’s madness. Trump decided to start a trade war with our neighbors, which will drive up the cost of fruits and vegetables, auto parts, vehicles, electronic components, potash (a vital ingredient in soap, water softener, de-icing, fertilizer, and gunpowder), and for us northern states, electricity, since our states are connected to the Canadian grid and our power utilities purchase surplus electricity from the Canadians.
Canadians are not suffering from high egg prices or egg shortages, as they’ve successfully isolated farms from bird flu outbreaks. The Trump administration’s own fact sheet shows a graph with egg prices against last year. A year ago at this time, eggs were $1.89/dozen across the nation on average. The average is currently $8.00/dozen. That is a fourfold increase. Trump supposedly won the election because Biden didn’t do enough to tame inflation, but so far, egg shortages and prices are skyrocketing under Trump. In fact, the rate of inflation since Trump took office has doubled, from 1.9% to 3.8%, largely driven by his erratic trade policies and his obsession with niche culture war issues instead of the cost of living.
To get an idea of the lunacy dictating executive decision making, here’s how Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem spent her weekend:
Trump has repeatedly insulted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the “governor of the great state of Canada” in tweets over the last three months, and when Trudeau announced immediate reciprocity on tariffs today, Trump tweeted this.
More immature bullying and sophomoric behavior. Trudeau, meanwhile, acted like an adult addressing Canada live on CBC this afternoon. Some key quotes from his address:
"Today, the United States launched a trade war against Canada - their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time, they're talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin - a lying murderous dictator. Make that makes sense."
"We're probably going to keep booing the American anthem. But let me tell Americans, we're not booing you, we're not booing your teams, we're not booing your players. We're booing a policy that is designed to hurt us. We're insulted. And we're angry."
"He [Trump] talked about banking again today in a tweet, which doesn't make any sense because 16 banks are currently active in Canada holding about $113b worth of assets in this country... what he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that'll make it easier to annex us."
Bingo. Trump has latched onto territorial expansion, like all good dictators do, as the finis principalis (end goal) for his presidency. The threats towards Greenland, the insults hurled at Canada, and now the launching of a destructive trade war that will further impoverish Americans and greatly harm the economies of Canada and Mexico. The end result will likely be that Mexico turns more towards cooperation with South America, and maybe even China, while Canada will likely turn inward and cozy back up to the British Commonwealth more. America will suffer, and with those conditions, Trump will then blame outsiders for creating the misery that he himself is inflicting. This further allows the autocrat to consolidate their power.
Congress is at its weakest state in generations, BY CHOICE, and Democratic leadership, again, cannot be bothered to put up more than token resistance. They insist on decorum while fascists are burning the Constitution in front of them. They insist on comity while a radical budget to rob the poor so Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos can have another private space rocket is being pushed in Congress. Republicans are proposing putting Trump on currency, Mount Rushmore, and anywhere else they can think of, and Hakeem Jeffries is like, “I believe we should present a dignified presence at the State of the Union.”
It’s embarassing, and it’s turning dangerous. As the economy gets worse (the stock markets plunged today when the tariffs began), he will look for distractions, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he does something warlike to try and consolidate support.
Indeed.