America is A Pariah State

We are governed by craven little men

We are governed by a craven little man, whose sense of personal aggrievement is destroying the Pax Americana that has saved millions of lives across the world.

Lost in the disgraceful display of Oval Office pique on Friday was Trump’s reasoning for why he was siding with the criminal Putin regime against the brave Ukrainians fighting for their very survival.

Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia ... You ever hear of that deal? That was a phony. That was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam. Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff, it was a Democrat scam. And he had to go through that. And he did go through it. We didn‘t end up in a war. And he went through it. He was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden‘s bathroom. It came out of Hunter Biden‘s bedroom. It was disgusting. And then they said, oh, oh, the laptop from hell was made by Russia. The 51 agents. The whole thing was a scam. And he had to put up with that. He was being accused of all that stuff. All I can say is this: he might have broken deals with Obama and Bush, and he might have broken them with Biden. He did maybe, maybe he didn‘t. I don‘t know what happened, but he didn‘t break them with me. He wants to make a deal…

According to Trump, Vladimir Putin “had to go through” an investigation into Russian election interference (which has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt). He was “used,” you see (even as he was using bot farms and other “active measures” to subvert American democracy). And then, poor Putin was blamed for Hunter Biden’s laptop (the focus on which has been a fever dream of the Murdoch media empire for years, though it has absolutely nothing to do with Ukraine).

It is not about the millions of Ukrainians whose very lives are at risk because Putin has decided to reconstitute the former Soviet Union. It is not about the message this kind of unprovoked aggression will send to China and other aggressors.

It is about making the United States a pariah state, siding with totalitarian regimes who are putting the world at its greatest peril since 1945.

Which brings me to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Senator Lindsay Graham and others whom the White House trotted out immediately after Trump’s insane Oval screed on Friday to defend the indefensible.

Rubio was once a staunch ally of Ukraine, who perfectly understood the threat that Russia’s invasion poses to the world order. He certainly stood up for Zelensky’s position in 2023. According to The New York Times:

Back then, Mr. Rubio also said that if Russia could expand its territory in Ukraine by outlasting the patience and support of Western nations, it would set a bad precedent for China, which could use similar military force to invade Taiwan or other territories it lays claims to.

“The message would be pretty clear,” Mr. Rubio said. “If you want to invade a smaller neighbor and take their land, then you can do it, and there won’t be many consequences for it.”

Yet here was Rubio moments after Trump destroyed the Pax Americana on Friday, siding with Putin and giving the back of the hand to Zelensky:

Rubio went even further over yesterday on ABC. “What Zelensky did, unfortunately, is that he found every opportunity to try to ‘Ukraine-splain’ on every issue.”

Ukraine-splain? What did he expect the president of Ukraine to do but speak from the perspective of a leader who is defending his country’s very survival, especially as he was combatting the Kremlin talking points that were emanating from the mouth of an American president?

Then there is Graham, who has been a defender of Ukraine and said this when he voted to provide aid to Ukraine less than a year ago:

“Across the globe, Ukraine is fighting bravely against the Russian invaders and needs weapons to finish the job.”

Just a few moments after Trump ignominiously kicked Zelensky out of the White House, Graham trotted out to tell reporters how proud he was of Trump’s performance and called on Zelensky to resign if he would not bend the knee. Imagine: a man who has subsumed every single value he claimed to espouse in order to curry favor with a president who he knows is unfit to govern, has the temerity to tell Zelensky to resign.

The cynicism is breathtaking.

And then there is Elon Musk, doped up on ketamine and unlimited power, whose own lawyers once told him not to apply for a top-secret security clearance because he would not pass it due to his drug use and regular conversations with Putin. Over the weekend, Musk endorsed the view that the United States should pull out of NATO.

Like clockwork, Trump’s enablers in Congress chimed in to trash NATO too. From Rep. Thomas Massie in the House to Senator Mike Lee in the Senate, they all piled on to denigrate the greatest military alliance in world history. Let us recall that it is the United States that has benefited most from NATO, because it is the United States — and only the United States — that has ever invoked its collective defense pact after 9/11. European and Canadian servicemen and women died for us in Afghanistan, not the other way around.

Is there any doubt that this is all a perfectly choreographed set-up to pave the way for Trump to leave the alliance, much like the Oval Office meeting with Zelensky was a perfectly choreographed set-up to cut Ukraine off permanently from American aid and to sell it off, bit by bit, to the Kremlin?

There are a scant few Republicans who have dared to contravene this obscenity publicly. Senator Lisa Murkowski tweeted out her horror at what is happening but what does she intend to do about it? Is she going to hold up every single nomination and every single bill until the White House comes to its senses? Doubtful, though hope springs eternal.

Senator John Curtis of Utah also weighed in.

But what are Murkowski and Curtis doing to ensure that our country does not turn into a pariah state, other than tweeting their disappointment? Nothing.

And then there are Congressional Democrats leaders, who are simply missing in action, paralyzed with uncertainty. Rudderless, they have failed to meet the moment in every way. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer released a tweet that might have sounded pithy if it had been designed to adorn a bumper sticker in 1998, when he first ran for the senate. In today’s media ecosystem, it is worse than nothing.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries put out a statement that was largely lost in the news cycle:

President Trump and his administration continue to embarrass America on the world stage. Today’s White House meeting with the President of Ukraine was appalling and will only serve to further embolden Vladimir Putin, a brutal dictator. The United States must not reward Russian aggression and continue to appease Putin.

For three years, President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people have stood on the side of democracy, freedom and truth. Their success is in the national security interests of the United States. We should stand with Ukraine until victory is won.

Does Leader Jeffries think we are having a debate about tax policy here? The United States is the indispensable power. Why were Democrats not holding a press conference on the steps of the Capitol to condemn all this, to stand up for democratic values against autocracy, to reiterate that not everyone in a position of leadership in the United States is sick with MAGA brain rot, to assure our NATO allies and the rest of the democratic world that there are leaders in this country who have not lost their minds?

There are no answers, which is why our former friends in the West believe that we have changed sides, that we are now part of the Axis of Evil along with Russia and North Korea, our new voting partners in the United Nations.

Donald Trump does not speak for me. I bet he does not speak for you, either. But you would not know that because the Democratic leaders who have a megaphone have refused to use it to speak on our behalf.

It is up to us now to make the world pay attention because the people whom we have hired to use their bully pulpits have utterly failed.