The Conversation -- February 16, 2025
⭐David Sanger & Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: “Many critical issues were left uncertain — including the fate of Ukraine — at the end of Europe’s first encounter with an angry and impatient Trump administration. But one thing was clear: An epochal breach appears to be opening in the Western alliance.... European officials who emerged from a meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said they now expect that tens of thousands of American troops will be pulled out of Europe — the only question is how many, and how fast. And they fear that in one-on-one negotiations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Mr. Trump is on his way to agreeing to terms that could ultimately put Moscow in a position to own a fifth of Ukraine and to prepare to take the rest in a few years’ time. Mr. Putin’s ultimate goal, they believe, is to break up the NATO alliance. Those fears spilled out on the stage of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday morning, when President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that 'Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs.'...
“President Emmanuel Macron of France has asked 'the main European countries' to come to Paris on Monday to discuss the war in Ukraine and European security.... The Élysée Palace said on Sunday in a statement that the meeting would be informal and involve the heads of government from Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark. The presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, as well as the NATO chief, would also attend.” This is a gift link.
Marie: Since no one has complained, I'm assuming these gift links are working. I am limited in the number and can make, and I can offer them only to a few NYT & WashPo articles. ~~~
~~~ Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: “Vice President JD Vance and other top administration officials made their European debut last week, slashing their way through a continent of allies as they embraced far-right leaders, demanded access to mineral wealth and offered sympathy to the views of Russian President Vladimir Putin. By the end of the week, European leaders found themselves potentially cut out of peace talks with Russia, facing down a trade war with Washington and scrambling to answer U.S. requests about how many troops they can marshal to Ukraine to guarantee a truce negotiated without their input.” ~~~
~~~ Nahal Toosi of Politico: “Russian leader Vladimir Putin is eyeing NATO countries for future invasion even as he talks with the Trump administration about ending the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukraine’s president [Volodymyr Zelenskyy] warns... in an interview with NBC’s 'Meet the Press.'... Putin has grandiose ambitions, a hostility toward NATO, and an awareness of the Trump administration’s skepticism of the military alliance. The Russian leader may calculate the time is ripe to make moves, at least against former Soviet states now in the alliance, Zelenskyy said.... He also said he warned Trump that Putin is not trustworthy. 'I said to him, “No, he’s a liar. He doesn’t want any peace,”’ Zelenskyy said.”
Heather Cox Richardson writes a history lesson on how we got from FDR to Trump. Not surprisingly, racism plays the most prominent role (tho that's not exactly how Richardson puts it). But now, Richardson speculates, the Trump/Musk administration is doing something that could put the brakes on the anti-government trend: "For forty years, Republican politicians could win elections by insisting that government spending redistributed wealth from hardworking taxpayers to the undeserving because they did not entirely purge the federal programs that their own voters liked. Now Trump, Musk, and the Republicans are purging funds for cancer research, family farms, national parks, food, nuclear security, and medical care — all programs his supporters care about — and threatening to throw the country into an economic tailspin that will badly hurt Republican-dominated states.... Forty years of ideology is under pressure now from reality, and the outcome remains uncertain."
Trump Bullying, Ctd. Emma Burrows of the AP has more on the "deal" the Trump administration offered Ukraine. (NYT story by Constant Meheut linked below) Ukraine turned down the deal, largely because it was "You give us half your critical minerals/we give you nothing."
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After viewing the classic 1953 film “Shane,” which presents post-World War II American values literally in black and white, evil and good, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times writes that once upon a time, “Law and order wasn’t a cliché or a passé principle that could be kicked aside if it interfered with baser ambitions.... So it’s disorienting to have the men running America, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, relish bullying people who can’t fight back and blurring lines between good and bad.... Our heroes preserved the Union and liberated Europe from the Nazis. We’re supposed to be the shining city on the hill. It feels as if we’re turning our country into a crass, commercial product, making it cruel, as we maximize profits.”
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “At every step in his second term, Mr. Trump is demonstrating how unbound he is from prior restraints, dramatically remaking both domestic and foreign policy at a scale that has little parallel. His swift moves in his first month back in office underscore the confidence of an administration with a much firmer grip on the levers of government than during Mr. Trump’s last stint in the White House.... The blitz of policy changes Mr. Trump has undertaken during his first month in office have little precedent, historians say. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a similar flurry of activity during his first 100 days in office, but those measures aimed to build up American institutions, not tear them down.... So far, the upheaval caused by Mr. Trump’s early moves has not appeared to have brought a large shift in public opinion against him....” ~~~
~~~ Julia Ainsley, et al., of NBC News: “The Department of Justice fired multiple immigration judges on Friday.... Five midlevel assistant chief immigration judges and 13 candidates to become new judges received termination notices on Friday.... A union representing immigration judges said that since the start of the Trump administration, more than two dozen immigration judges, managers and new hires have been fired.... 'This firing occurred despite the fact that the Immigration Court currently has in the neighborhood of 3.5 MILLION pending cases and DOJ is asking Congress for more money to hire more people at EOIR!”... Kerry Doyle, a recently appointed immigration judge ... said in a statement on LinkedIn, referring to the Executive Office of Immigration Review. Doyle alleged that the 'firing was political,' noting that she and colleagues who were fired had been hired during the Biden administration.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: These firings could be the work of the Clueless Muskovites, but more likely the administration targeted these judges because Trump wants to replace them with judges who will guarantee they are comfortable tossing out most or all of the applicants for asylum and others whose cases might inspire fair-minded judges to grant them relief. I wonder from time to time if Musk himself is really as ignorant as Trump or if he just lies to bolster rationales for his bigotry. Or it could be both: perhaps he makes mistakes & jumps to stupid conclusions because he is a bigot. Here's an example of Musk's stupidity AND/OR mendacity. (Oh, and it also demonstrates that, like Trump, Musk can't handle criticism): ~~~
~~~ Will Oremus & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: “The actor and director Ron Howard posted Wednesday on X an article by the news agency Reuters headlined, 'Musk’s DOGE cuts based more on political ideology than real cost savings so far.' An hour later, Elon Musk posted a reply: 'I wonder how much money Reuters is getting from the government? Let’s find out.' Before the night’s end..., [Musk] was touting ... a screenshot of a U.S. government webpage showing a contract between the Defense Department and Thomson Reuters Special Services for 'Active Social Engineering Defense' and Large Scale Social Deception.' 'Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for “large scale social deception,’” Musk proclaimed in an X post that has racked up more than 76,000 shares and 35 million views. 'They’re a total scam. Just wow.' A slightly closer look would have revealed that the contract, signed during ... Donald Trump’s first term, was for help defending against cyberattacks — that is, combating deception, not fueling it. And it went to a separate division of the company, not the news agency.... The Reuters brouhaha was the latest example of what is quickly becoming a familiar playbook as Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service sweeps through federal agencies for evidence of waste, fraud and corruption.... Musk has repeatedly misrepresented facts on X to bolster unfounded claims of wrongdoing.”
Edward Wong of the New York Times: “Three top foreign policy aides in the Trump administration plan to meet with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia next week to discuss a path to ending the war in Ukraine, the first substantial talks between the superpowers on the conflict. The meeting would come less than a week after ... [Donald] Trump spoke on the phone with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Trump told reporters afterward that talks on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine would take place in Saudi Arabia.... The meeting [in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,] will most likely draw criticism from some top Ukrainian officials. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said Thursday that his country must be involved in any talks over its own fate, a statement he made after learning about the Trump-Putin call.... The top American officials who plan to attend are Marco Rubio, the secretary of state; Mike Waltz, the national security adviser; and Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy who also works on Ukraine-Russia issues, the person familiar with the schedule said.” As Trump would say, this is “disgraceful.” MB: The only upside I see is that Rubio, Waltz & Witkoff are probably the most capable people in Trump's stable of horribles. He could have sent Tipsy Pete and Tulsi Gabbard. ~~~
~~~ Constant Meheut, et al., of the New York Times: “President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, rejected an offer by the Trump administration to relinquish half of the country’s mineral resources in exchange for U.S. support, according to five people briefed on the proposal or with direct knowledge of the talks.... Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury secretary, who presented the deal to Ukraine, said Sunday that the United States wanted the minerals 'as payback for the aid we’ve given them' — leaving unclear whether the deal would cover future military and financial assistance. A Ukrainian official and an energy expert briefed on the proposal said that the Trump administration sought not only Ukraine’s minerals but additional natural resources, including oil and gas. The proposal, they said, would entitle the United States to half of Ukraine’s resource earnings — funds that are today mostly invested in the country’s military and defense production.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trying to horse-trade away a nation's territory, sovereignty, freedom & democratic institutions is equally “disgraceful.” Trump's “offer” is akin to the “perfect call” that led to Trump's impeachment, except this is bigger. It's not about putting “America First,” either; it's more about completely undermining the U.S.'s standing in the world. ~~~
[Pete Hegseth] made a rookie mistake in Brussels.... I don’t know who wrote the speech — it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool. -- Sen. Roger Wicker, (R-Miss.), Chair of the Armed Services Committee ~~~
~~~ Eric Schmitt & John Ismay of the New York Times: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has had a rocky trip to Europe this week. In his debut on the world stage, Mr. Hegseth told NATO and Ukrainian ministers in Brussels on Wednesday that a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was 'an unrealistic objective' and ruled out NATO membership for Kyiv.... [His remarks] stunned officials in Washington, as well in Kyiv and European capitals.... A few hours later..., [Donald] Trump backed him up while announcing a phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to begin peace negotiations. Facing fierce blowback the next day from European allies and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Mr. Hegseth backpedaled, denying that either he or Mr. Trump had sold out Ukraine or taken bargaining chips with Russia off the table.... Mr. Hegseth sought to recover on Friday, saying in Warsaw that his goal had simply been to 'introduce realism into the expectations of our NATO allies.'... Former Pentagon officials said it was highly unlikely that Mr. Hegseth’s prepared remarks had not been cleared and coordinated with the White House’s National Security Council before delivery.... [Later o]n Friday, when Mr. Hegseth visited Poland, he appeared to tack yet again, this time closer to his original remarks on Wednesday....”
Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: A day after visiting the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, Germany, JD Vance gave a speech in Munich lecturing Europeans that they must invite extremists into the political process. “Eighty years after American soldiers liberated Dachau, top German officials this weekend all-but accused Mr. Vance — and by extension..., [Donald] Trump — of boosting a political party that many Germans consider to be dangerously descended from Nazism.... Decades of German law and political practice have revolved around the belief that to prevent another Hitler from coming to power, the government must ban hate speech and shun political parties deemed extreme.... Mr. Vance, like ... Elon Musk, has parachuted into the country’s parliamentary elections, criticizing that approach. Mr. Musk has publicly endorsed the [right-wing Alternative for Germany, a Nazi-sympathetic party], telling party members last month that Germans have 'too much of a focus on past guilt.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Lest we suspect JayDee was freelancing, shortly after his Munich speech, reporters asked Trump what he thought about it in view of the fact that it had horrified our European allies. Trump said, "I heard his speech and he talked about freedom of speech. And I think it's true in Europe, it's losing, they're losing their wonderful right of freedom of speech...."
Edward Wong, et al., of the New York Times: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio was meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel as political chaos rippled across the Middle East over ... [Donald] Trump’s insistent proposals to seize the devastated Gaza Strip and force out its Palestinian residents.... Mr. Rubio, a former Florida senator with a far more conventional worldview and style than the president, has more than once suggested that Mr. Trump’s idea is mainly a negotiating tactic meant to provoke Arab leaders into taking more responsibility for the Palestinians.”
Scott Lemieux in LG&$ republishes a portion of a New Republic article. From the NR: “A new internal memo circulating inside the U.S. Agency for International Development ... warns USAID employees not to communicate with the press about the shocking disruptions in humanitarian assistance that are being caused by the Trump-Musk attack on the agency, which are already producing horrific consequences. The memo said this transgression might be met with 'dismissal.' The memo claims to be correcting a 'false narrative in the press' about the disruptions.... This is highly disingenuous at best and mostly nonsense at worst. As The New York Times reports, some senior USAID officials recently received an email explicitly directing them to hold off on approving some of this assistance, pending more directives from on high. What’s more, according to the Times, while some of this assistance did continue due to [a waiver issued by Marco Rubio to allow for 'livesaving humanitarian assistance,’] much of it has encountered serious obstacles.” Do read on. ~~~
~~~ Lemieux also cites this WashPo article ~~~
~~~ Ben Brasch & Anumita Kaur of the Washington Post: “Jan. 28 began as a normal day for 'Marcus Doe,' an employee of the U.S. Agency for International Development stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.... Within hours, everything changed. Violent political demonstrations erupted and protesters attacked the U.S. Embassy. By the end of the day, most staff were told to evacuate. But ... the White House had frozen foreign aid spending about a week earlier and put senior USAID leaders on leave. The agency had stopped paying for employee travel.... When he finally made it to Washington after a harrowing journey by boat and plane, Marcus was put on administrative leave. The account is one of more than a dozen from U.S. employees stationed overseas, along with others who work with USAID, included in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by unions representing USAID staff and U.S. Foreign Service officers. They are asking the court for a temporary restraining order directing the White House 'to reverse these unlawful actions and to halt any further steps to dissolve the agency.'”
Nick Miroff & Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump has launched an all-of-government immigration crackdown with the urgency of a wartime effort, a mobilization comparable in scope to the responses to the 9/11 attacks and the coronavirus pandemic. But despite the rapid infusion of resources, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is struggling to arrest higher numbers of immigrants and falling far short of the administration’s goals.... ICE arrests have sagged so far this month, according to data provided by the Department of Homeland Security, declining from about 800 per day in late January after Trump took office to fewer than 600 during the first 13 days of February. The administration has stopped publishing daily numbers.... The top two enforcement officials at ICE were removed from their jobs this week and reassigned due to what Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said was a lack of 'results.'” Trump wants another $175 billion to boost border security, “an amount would have been unthinkable during Trump’s first term....”
Ali Bianco of Politico: “Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the Department of Education put state education departments on notice Friday, threatening to revoke federal funding for public schools and universities unless they remove all 'diversity, equity and inclusion' programming within 14 days.... 'The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent,' acting Secretary Craig Trainor wrote in a letter DOGE said went to every state education department.... The Education Department has shown a willingness to target public schools over the policy already, having launched an investigation into Denver Public Schools in late January for converting a female restroom into an all-gender facility at a local high school. Just this week, the Department slashed 70 DEI training grants, according to DOGE on X. Democratic lawmakers denounced the letter as illegal on Friday. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) ... said in a press release..., '... there is simply no authority or basis for Trump to impose such a mandate,” Murray said in a press release.”
Trump Tariffs Will Raise Housing Prices. Ronda Kaysen of the New York Times: “On Thursday, Mr. Trump announced sweeping plans for reciprocal tariffs that could upend global trade, and the home building industry is bracing for the impact. Some builders and developers say they are beginning to feel the squeeze: They have received contracts with escalation clauses to account for increased costs; waited as their suppliers delay updated price sheets for imported goods; and received bids that are only good for two weeks when typically they would hold for two or three months.... 'If they increase an extra 30 percent or 60 percent like what the president said before, that will be trouble,' said [builder Bentley] Zhao, who develops mostly moderately-priced condos throughout [New York City and has contributed to Trump's campaigns].... A house that is more expensive to build becomes more expensive to buy. Add in the risk of inflation from tariffs, and interest rates could rise in response, driving up costs even more, said Gregg Colburn ... of the University of Washington.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Just think about that. Trump, who has been in the real estate business -- in one way or another -- all of his working life, doesn't seem to know his tariffs will have a negative effect on real estate developers and on the real estate market in general.
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New York. Maia Coleman of the New York Times: “Mayor Eric Adams intends to sue the Trump administration by the end of next week over its clawback of $80 million in federal funding meant to cover the cost of housing migrants in New York City, according to a letter from City Hall. The letter, which was sent to the city comptroller on Friday, said the Law Department was in the process of 'drafting litigation papers' in an effort to reverse the administration’s clawback of the funds, which were transferred to New York by the Federal Emergency Management Agency this month.... The decision by Mr. Adams to take a legal stand against the Trump administration on an immigration-related issue comes at a critical moment for the mayor, who this week faced mounting calls to resign after Manhattan’s acting U.S. attorney, Danielle R. Sassoon, accused him of trading concessions on immigration policy for the dismissal of the corruption charges against him.”
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".. So far, the upheaval caused by Mr. Trump’s early moves has not appeared to have brought a large shift in public opinion against him....” ~~~
Even more mysterious and disturbing to me than his 2020 election, though I suspect both have the same source. A population either not paying attention until events hit their pocketbooks directly and/or one eager to swallow all the lies...
The Onion
"Concerned Bartender Takes Away Pete Hegseth’s Security Clearance
“Look, buddy, you’re in no condition to be getting behind a desk at the Defense Department right now,” the proprietor of local dive bar the Anchor reportedly told a stumbling, belligerent Hegseth while reaching into the Cabinet member’s pocket, pulling out his security credentials, and placing them in a locked box behind the counter."
Finding Out
"With Trump and Musk driving U.S. policy, Kansas farmers have been played for suckers"
Ben Palen
Taking Option Two
"Jose Barco, a decorated U.S. Army veteran once based out of Fort Carson who served two tours in Iraq during some of the most intense fighting but later served time for a felony conviction, has become a casualty of a different kind of war. At an immigration hearing Wednesday morning, he told Assistant Immigration Judge Matthew Kaufman that he was not interested in appealing his deportation case after an immigration attorney gave him a 2% chance of winning a case, which could take several more years and and thousands of dollars to fight. “I’m disillusioned and tired. Send me to a country that will accept me since my country doesn’t,” he told his brother, Ray in a phone call late Wednesday."
BBC on AI
"AI chatbots unable to accurately summarise news, BBC finds
The BBC gave OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Copilot, Google's Gemini and Perplexity AI content from the BBC website then asked them questions about the news.
It said the resulting answers contained "significant inaccuracies" and distortions.
In the study, the BBC asked ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity to summarise 100 news stories and rated each answer.
It got journalists who were relevant experts in the subject of the article to rate the quality of answers from the AI assistants.
It found 51% of all AI answers to questions about the news were judged to have significant issues of some form.
Additionally, 19% of AI answers which cited BBC content introduced factual errors, such as incorrect factual statements, numbers and dates."
Economic Blackout Planned for February 28th
(https://thirdact.org/texas/2025/02/10/u-s-economic-blackout-planned-for-feb-28/)
Rally Together