Buses empty, nobody hurt; bombs may have been intended for Friday morning but had timers incorrectly set; 2 more devices found on buses nearby; police suspect West Bank terror cell
Friday, February 21, 2025
Mr. President: Putin is THE dictator and 9 other Ukraine-Russia war truths we ignore at our peril
President Trump is absolutely right in wanting to end the bloodshed in Ukraine. The suffering has been appalling and the stalemate brutal. But in the furious mix of wild opinions this week from the White House down, there are at least 10 truths which every American voter must hang onto.
In Trump’s rush to end the bloodshed, these are also the truths against which any deal will be judged and will define him when the history books are written.
To ignore them or not treat them with the gravity they deserve will also have enormous consequences for decades to come:
Vladimir Putin started this war, despite what President Trump said days ago.
Children's bodies identified, the third body is not that of Shiri Bibas
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/404258
IDF representatives inform the Bibas family that Ariel and Kfir Bibas have been identified. They were brutally murdered while in captivity in November of 2023. The additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas. IDF: A violation of utmost severity by Hamas.
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Trump’s flood of false claims about Ukraine
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/20/trump-ukraine-fact-checker/
In remarks and social media posts, the president echoed Russian talking points.
Trump’s declaration was shocking. Mike Pence, his former vice president, posted on X: “Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Trump of living in a Russian-made “disinformation space” — and then Trump shot back with an attack on Truth Social.
A Trump outrage that stands apart
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/19/ukraine-zelensky-trump-peace-talks/
Tuesday was a dark day for the United States. President Donald Trump and his administration embraced Russia as a peace partner without demanding that it pay any price for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. And then, in a statement that turned morality upside down, the president blamed Ukraine for causing the war.
Trump is an outrage-generating machine. He appears to take perverse pleasure in saying things that shock, and I normally ignore the daily presidential detonation. But this time was different. The tragic loss of life in Ukraine will mean nothing — and a true resolution of the conflict will be impossible — if we can’t distinguish between the attacker and the victim.
Poll Shows Dip in Trump’s Approval as He Concedes ‘Inflation Is Back’
https://time.com/7259417/trump-poll-approval-inflation/
The poll found a majority of Americans don’t like how Trump is handling the economy, with 54% disapproving, and foreign trade, with 53% who disapprove. (The Gallup poll is based on telephone interviews with 1,004 adults during the two week period ending Feb. 16, and its margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.)
Despite his historically low support among Americans more broadly, Republican voters remain strongly behind Trump. His job approval among Republicans is 93%, while his approval among Democrats is 4%. Among independent voters, Trump has 37% approval.
MAGA Cheers on ‘King’ Trump Dropping Pretense of Democracy
https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-cheers-on-king-trump-dropping-pretense-of-democracy/
President Donald Trump declared himself king and MAGAworld eagerly bent the knee.
Conservatives cheered on Trump’s victory lap Wednesday after announcing the termination of New York City’s controversial congestion pricing program, which came into effect last month as part of a bid to raise funds for improving the city’s mass transit system.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had initiated legal proceedings to push back against the Trump administration’s termination of the program.
“We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king,” she said in a statement. “We’ll see you in court.”
Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said his loyalty remained with the nation.
“We don’t have kings in America, and I won’t bend the knee to one,” he said.
Trump’s New York Lawfare Backfire
Democratic lawfare failed against Donald Trump the candidate, and now it’s backfiring on Mr. Trump’s attempt to use it as President. That’s the lesson of the fallout surrounding his Justice Department’s move to dismiss the corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams that could cost the mayor his job.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering whether to remove Mr. Adams from office after news emerged last week of an alleged Trump-Adams quid pro quo. Mr. Trump wants Mr. Adams in office to help him with migrant removal and other things. But that’s angered New York Democrats, and this week four of the mayor’s leading aides quit.
This story doesn’t make the Justice Department look good, or smart. In a Feb. 10 memo from Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, Justice ordered prosecutors to drop the corruption case against Mr. Adams, but with the ability to revive it later. Mr. Bove said the charges are distracting the mayor from supporting federal efforts against illegal immigration.
Three days later, Mr. Adams met Tom Homan, Mr. Trump’s border czar. “We are now working on implementing an executive order that will reestablish the ability for ICE agents to operate on Rikers Island,” the mayor said.
Trump Tilts Toward a Ukraine Sellout
One challenge in the Trump era is distinguishing when the President is popping off for attention from when his remarks indicate a real change in policy and priorities. President Trump’s rhetorical assault on Ukraine in recent days appears to be the latter, and perhaps it is a sign of an ugly settlement to come.
Mr. Trump on Tuesday mimicked Russian propaganda by claiming Ukraine had started the war with Russia and that Kyiv is little better than the Kremlin because it hasn’t held a wartime election. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky replied on Wednesday that Mr. Trump was living in a “disinformation space,” which may have been imprudent but was accurate.
Mr. Trump escalated on Wednesday, as he usually does, calling Mr. Zelensky a “dictator,” and suggesting Ukraine’s leader snookered the U.S. into supporting a war “that couldn’t be won, that never had to start.” Mr. Zelensky “refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’”
It’s tempting to dismiss this exchange as mere rhetoric, but it has the feel of political intention for Mr. Trump. He may be trashing Ukraine’s democracy to make voters think there’s no real difference between the Kremlin and Kyiv. He may think this will make it easier to sell a peace deal that betrays Ukraine.
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)