God damn. To read what you - an oracle and pogue of the Dope - wrote and that there ain’t no sunshine really, really bums me out.
I have a theory.
Yesterday, I was reading reporting that outlined the minerals deal and while I disapproved in principle, the deal itself seemed almost reasonable and I was surprised Trump agreed to it.
In a nutshell, the deal was for Ukraine to deposit half the revenues from their rare earth metals into a jointly managed fund with the revenue from the fund to go into rebuilding Ukraine.
Gift link from yesterday
In exchange, Ukraine would receive some unspecific security guarantees.
So here’s what I think happened.
Lil Marco negotiated an agreement that he thought would be good enough, because he’s been brainwashed into thinking that Trump is a shrewd businessman that’s secretly sane. The agreement let Ukraine do something they probably would’ve done anyway in exchange for something they could fight out at a later date. I think Rubio thought that if Trump cronies could get fees for managing the money, that this would be enough grift to satisfy Trump’s greed
ThenTrump could have a big ceremony, sign some papers with Zelensky, then have a big “Peace in Ukraine” party, televised live while the whole world clapped.
This might have worked with Trump 1.0 but Rubio misjudged the 2.0 version and Trump threw a ketchup tantrum, and in order to save his wrinkly orange face he had to pull the stunt and blow up the deal on purpose. Or maybe he didn’t figure it out til the meeting started, because it’s not like Trump reads the paper.
Well, that’s my theory, and this episode goes to show something I’ve always said about Trump……he’s actually the world’s worst negotiator and all the successful negotiations in his career were done by underlings who bought him in at the last minute and even then his advisors were white-knuckling it during the entire closing because they were afraid he’d open his stinky piehole and sink the deal.
There are two main reasons he’s the world’s worst negotiator.
One, he can’t accepts that a successful negotiation ends in a win/win where both sides walk away happy — negotiations are frequently the beginning of a partnership of some sort, and good deals make for good partners.
But this just isn’t in Trump’s nature, because he’s a mean-spirited man that isn’t going to be happy unless the other side is unhappy.
Two, he has a total disdain for information, with the narrow exception of information that glorifies Trump. And negotiation is about information, the goal is to be better informed than the person on the other side of the table. Better information results in better deals, and Trump has a disdain for knowledge.
Seriously, worst deal maker ever. And running government is not like running a business because the government never gets to really walk away.
ETA -Original post edited extensively, because I hit SEND too soon.
But that’s just nonsense, it’s like wishing unicorns would go back in time and kill Hitler. It’s not how the world works and it isn’t just pointless to fantasize about it, it’s actually destructive. We’re in this mess because Americans were brainwashed that we were the greatest nation on earth and we need to drop the that bullshit yesterday and hope the civilized world unites against us with anyone who wants to kill Americans and bring this shit to a quick end.
You think that will end well for anyone?
Stranger
The USA once was the greatest nation. A lot of that was on paper (something Jefferson wrote) yet before I was born the USA (okay, and the Soviets) had defeated Hitler, and after I was born we went to the Moon and the Miracle Mets won the World Series. My father’s small machine shop made lots of parts for Grumman Aerospace. Nixon, Ford, Carter though with Reagan things literally went south.
In some twilight zone episode (like Willoughby) send me back to 1979. 1969 would do as well, if I could get upstate to some three day music festival.
This reminds me: We Democrats should run someone with military back ground next. Assures beating Vance and any other annointed Trump choice. Trump has no energy past 2028, as much as he loves power.
So they can be swiftboated again?
MAGA have no connection with the truth. It wouldn’t matter to them.
I believe I posted this sentiment before. (I’m too agitated to search for it now.)
Putin invaded Ukraine partly because his ego demands he have two countries to run. When Trump left office back in 2021, Putin only had Russia to run.
We, or more correctly, Ukraine will soon be at the point of not fighting an invading force, but fighting an actual 100% occupation of their country.
“Trump fucked up” is like “Once upon a time”. That’s the accepted way to begin the report.
I remember it. What I didn’t know was he was foreshadowing his public display of admiration for both Germany’s and America’s versions.
Mighty fine observation. I’ve often said rational people attempt to understand irrational people’s actions by evaluating those actions as though they were made by a rational person. This obviously cannot work, but we rational people insist on doing that. (Yes, I know.)
Taking his marching orders from =/= coordinating.
At this point, I have strong doubts that the next Presidential election will be anything but a show- if it occurs at all.
There ya go.
Could you imagine if Ukraine won without Trump’s help?
Just saw this. The Ukrainian ambassador to the US’s reaction to the press conference
Reddit - Dive into anything
Can I embed a Reddit video?
Let’s find out.
I guess not.
Ya just need to embed only the video. I got it by right clicking and opening the video in another window (this shows up for me, but I’ve already visited the page).
I wonder if there are any Ukrainian commandos training in the US right now. There they are, training to fight behind enemy lines and all of a sudden the enemy lines come to them. I wonder what they would do.
General rule of thumb: If you are there to discuss/negotiate with Trump, and the cameras are rolling, you weren’t called in to discuss/negotiate-you are there to be a shitshow target, and the outcome has already been determined by Trump.
When I lived in St. Petersburg, I would read (when there was something of a free-press there) about the plight of ethnic Russians in the Baltic states. They only could get “gray passports” which pretty much only allowed them to go back (and maybe forth) to Russia.
That ain’t right and I don’t think this policy has changed. Putin used similar circumstances in Ukraine as his casus belli and he did try and “liberate” all of Ukraine at least as far as Kiev, yet being an ex-spy the dumbass who apparently knew nothing of Russian history - did not know about General Winter - always an ally of Russia - yet climate change left so much of his army in the early thaw three years ago in the mud.
If there is anyone who can test Nato Article 5 (actually is there any other country left that can?) it will be Putin. He’ll be dangerous if he actually asks a General when a good time is, and I’m not sure Russia can keep sending troops to the West, yet if he feels Russia is capable, he’ll invade without care the Eastern portions of all three Baltic States.
Exactly.
To be clear, Trump’s performance was a disgrace that will be replayed over and over again in the minds of Europe for years to come.
But Zelensky knew Trump’s position, and he should have gotten better advice on how to not take the MAGA bait. Trump wanted Zelensky to kiss Trump’s feet and repeat over and over again how grateful he is that MAGA Jesus was born. Yes, it’s a ridiculous spectacle that requires sacrificing some dignity, but that’s what was required. He would have been better off not having a meeting at all.
Ukraine is not in a good position at all and will probably have to accept some sort of ceasefire. This also may well be the end of the Zelensky era.
The “negotiations” for Ukraine to provide half of their mineral resources to the United States for the “deal” of getting Putin to agree to a cease-fire (as if Putin has ever honored such agreements when it was to his benefit to do otherwise) don’t even make sense because the basic premise that the US needs these hypothetical resources doesn’t make sense:
Stranger
The most surprising things to me were,
- Vice President Vance doing Secretary Rubio’s job
- The fact that this meeting was televised
As for the administration’s stance towards Ukraine, that’s no revelation. Multiple times on the campaign trail, Mr. Trump said he would condition aid on Ukraine suing for peace. Furthermore, all of the statements from advisors have been in consistent in that Ukraine would not join NATO, and that Ukraine would have to cede some territory.
~Max