Crème de la Kremlin
With the nonstop onslaught of nervous breakdown inducing breaking news, the smashing of norms, and the shredding of the nation’s fabric, we tend to quickly move from one outrage to the next. But let’s not move on from the sick betrayal of America, its allies, and common decency that took place in the Oval Office last week, an affront egregious even by Trumpian standards; but one still not sick enough to shake the support of Maganablers who, quite clearly, are willing enable anything. As someone who opens fifty news tabs each morning, I’m used to being saddened, furious, perplexed, overwhelmed, and disgusted. But the ambush on Zelensky (and American values) left me with another feeling. It turns out Newshour’s David Brooks had the same feeling. “I first started thinking, is it — am I feeling grief? Am I feeling shock, like I’m in a hallucination? But I just think shame, moral shame. It’s a moral injury to see the country you love behave in this way.” George W Bush famously gaffed, “Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” When it comes to his Kremlinphilia, Trump has never really attempted to fool anyone. That makes the fact that America let things get to this point all the more shameful.
+ “The sheer rudeness shown to a foreign guest and friend of the United States was (to use a word) deplorable as a matter of manners and grace, but worse, Trump and Vance acted like a couple of online Kremlin sock puppets … Zelensky has endured tragedies, and risked his life, in ways that men such as Trump and Vance cannot imagine … I am ashamed for my nation; even if Congress acts to support and aid Ukraine, it cannot restore the American honor lost today.” Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): One of the Grimmest Days in the History of American Diplomacy.
+ There’s a certain irony that the day of infamy for a president infamous for lying came during a moment when he displayed his true self. David Frum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): At Least Now We Know the Truth. “Both the president and vice president showed the U.S.-led alliance system something it needed urgently to know: The national-security system of the West is led by two men who cannot be trusted to defend America’s allies—and who deeply sympathize with the world’s most aggressive dictator.”
+ Over the weekend, I considered downloading Duolingo so I could experience the Trump/Vance Oval Office performance in its original Russian. Sounds like it translated pretty well back at the Kremlin. Kremlin says US foreign policy now ‘aligns’ with Moscow’s vision.
+ The embrace of Moscow’s vision is only getting warmer. Hegseth Orders Pentagon to Stop Offensive Cyberoperations Against Russia.
+ UK, France scramble to draft peace plan for Ukraine as US support falters.
