A few things from yesterday shit show:
Trump keeps repeating rare earths and pronounces it really weird (is it rare or raw? Or whatever he says);
- 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 die every week on both sides: is it just numbers he made up or do they mean anything?
- Zelensky says they now have LNG terminals in Ukraine - as far as I am aware, they do not;
- The question to Zelensky from the reporter “Do you think President Trump is on your side” is dumb and provocative;
- Zelensky’s answer is just as dumb and provocative, ie “make Putin withdraw from our land”;
- Zelensky was frustrated from the very beginning and through out; body language showed just as much; looked completely unprepared for the “meet the press” and the shit show; big mistake and should not have been overlooked by the handlers;
- Trump said he is not looking forward to sending arms but to peace, yet - yes, he would send weapons, but hopefully not very much because he thinks they can get to peace quickly;
He also said that he doesn’t want to talk about security guarantees because he wants to get the deal done first; security is then easy; the US hasn’t committed but they could conceivably; this is in addition to the US workers digging the rare earth (that don’t exists, which is very important, IMO, and everyone is likely aware);
- He doesn’t believe the security guarantees are necessary because russia will not go back in is what he believes;
- 26th minute, Trump says he thinks Zelensky is a great guy and he likes him;
- mention of ceasefire and things start breaking down by Zelensky saying Putin broke his promises, etc;
- Trump said he never broke any ceasefire deal with him, when Zelensky interrupts Trump and says yes, he did, “you were the president”, and says they (Ukraine) will never accept a ceasefire; - This where he
really lost Trump for the first time;
- EU is not strong enough guarantee, which is obvious to everyone, I think;
- Zelensky than talks about nonsense about who started the war has to pay, frozen funds not enough, etc (nonsense in the context of the meeting, to be noted);
- Trump says he is in he middle because he wants to see this gets solved; otherwise, they will have to fight it out (ie, only now Trump starts to get on his offensive, getting tired of Zelensky’s irrelevant talk and confrontation);
- Trump says he is very committed to Poland that did a “great job and paid more than they had to, finest group of people he had ever known, they are in tough neighbourhood”; Baltics are in the tough neighbourhood too; America is very committed, but Europe has to step up;
- “We made the deal” Trump says, “I didn’t think we are going to make the deal, but we made the deal”, referring to the rare earths, I am assuming (the deal obviously was not made, but Zelensky was obviously committed or expressed so before the press meeting - otherwise there would be no meeting);
- Trump says the United States should not have allowed this to happen (I believe this is true and thing should have been worked before the invasion by everyone refused to do so, which we and I already discussed here previously);
- Trump started to get really uneasy at about minute 34 when Zelensky said that they (Americans) will feel it when Russia takes Baltics and then Poland (note Trump literally just said that he is committed to Poland and Baltics, very committed, in fact); Zelensky insists that American soldiers will fight for the Baltics et al
- Trump’s next answer (about Odessa) is clearly on the heightened tone now and… Zelensky interrupts him (he is really done at this point, really);
- At 36:30 or so Zelensky suggest that Trump is pushing “Putin’s information”;
- Rubio talks nonsense about free speech rights that Americans should have around the world (in UK in particular) while banning journalists from the white house (AP et al) - doesn’t have much to do with the discussion of this thread, but I thought it was funny;
- At about minute 42 is the beginning of what everyone has probably seen (not aligned with anyone but the United States of America and the world, wants me to say bad things about Putin, things don’t work that way, and so on); and he now goes on his attack against Zelensky (hatred for Putin that hard to deal with, etc), starts waving his hands as he does when he is on the offensive or frustrated (he did not do that didn’t do that prior for the length of 40 minutes);
- JD Vance
really chimes in for the first time, addressing the audience and trashing Joe Biden;
- Zelensky loses it at this point completely;
- Shortly after shit hits the fan and we are done;
- Everyone, including Graham, protects Trump and “Merica”;
- From the beginning of the war we have been alone, Zelensky says moments after Vance asked him if he had ever said thanks
during this conference;
- Shit keeps flying all over now
- Vance says let’s go litigate the disagreements rather than fight it in front of the American media (note that most of the questions came from the reporters with heavy accent, ie from other parts of the world);
- Trump is really pissed now and not unfairly so;
- Then the “signal” was lost completely and what a, pardon my language, clusterfuck it turned into;
- there are now videos floating around where Zelensky mumbles “suka” (“bitch”) while Vance is ranting; it looks to me that he did say that, but this not him calling Vance (undercover) a “bitch”, but just his frustration and inability to keep himself together, like mumbling “fuck” or something like that in English;
- Graham, the biggest Republican cheerleader for Ukraine thanks Trump and “dumps” Zelensky; so it appears he is done at this time and they will be going on without the US from now on unless things are fixed somehow; I do not think there are many ways to recover from this, unless with someone else, other than Zelensky;
This was not some “set up”, as some suggest, but Zelensky set himself up. He came, as usually (though more restrained than usually), as if everyone owes something to him or Ukraine, confrontational, as always. Very poor form. Trump would not have any of it, though I am surprised he was able to contain himself for so long as well. And he put Zelensky in his place. Sure, he was enabled by other world leaders for three years now, with his behaviour and manner of talking and, likely, genuine, though delusional, belief that he is fighting for the entire world and whatever else. “You gave me HIMARS, tanks, planes, everything I asked for, and you will give me ATACMS and permission to strike, etc, so we are just wasting time” or something along the lines he said some months ago. And similar stuff prior. In real world, things don’t work like this and this is where reality hit him right in the face. I have talked about it numerous times and I amazed that it didn’t happen two plus years ago with someone else. Imagine thinking it was a good idea to say that they were alone since the beginning, while demanding guarantees and Trump insisting that the US gave Ukraine $350B and they wouldn’t exist without the US assistance. This is the full version, if someone is interested:
One more thing I will add. So if the US pulls out… Up to this point, combined aid from the US, UK, EU, other nations mostly with financial aid, was not nearly sufficient to uplift Ukraine from the struggle and gave some kind of advantage. Now, if the US pulls out, having provided roughly half the funds up to this point, do people actually think the rest can pick up the slack and improve Ukrainian position? Math and capabilities do not add up and it isn’t even close. Add the timeline for adjustments and the end is nearer than it was for a very long time. And this is one way or the other.
I must have missed it then.
To be fair, there have not been many strikes in a long while now. Do they still have any stock of missiles?
There does not appear to be many restrictions, an if the rest were to be lifted, Ukraine does not have sufficient quantities of missiles to make any difference and there are not enough forthcoming, if any.
Generally speaking of strikes, when was the last one on Crimea? There are no restrictions there at all and plenty of targets to hit. It also seems like their drone attacks into Russia has become a lot less effective lately (or just less attacks?, looks like less effective is more the case), while the opposite seems to be the case for the Russian strikes into Ukraine.
Israel’s geographical location and reality demands different approach and spending. None of the countries in Europe face the same circumstances as Israel does. And I say that with full realization of the war raging on in Ukraine.
