And So It Goes

Today is Saturday, March 1, 2025. We are still reeling from the shameless debacle of a meeting held yesterday with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the Oval Office between the two bullies in charge of this country. In the wake of this startling acrimonious exchange between the three leaders, Western allies are now rallying around Zelenskyy after Dump’s ignominious behavior yesterday in the White House. An online CNN article examines the scuttling of our allies toward the embattled Ukrainian leader in “Western allies rally around Zelensky after Trump spat deepens rift with Europe,” written by Edward Szekeres.

Thus Western leaders scrambled to back Ukraine after Friday’s contentious meeting in the Oval Office, as the fault lines between Washington and many of its key allies have deepened ever since this convicted felon retook the White House in January.

One of those leaders, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who met Chump in the White House on Thursday, spoke with both the U.S. president and Zelenskyy following their shouting match, according to a Downing Street spokeswoman.

The spokeswoman said, Starmer “retains his unwavering support for Ukraine and is playing his past to find a path forward to a lasting peace, based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine.”

Now Britain is set to host a summit of European leaders on Sunday to discuss support for Kyiv. Zelenskyy is expected to attend what’s likely to be a much more welcoming setting for the Ukrainian leader, with Starmer having urged the buffoon in charge here against accepting any peace deal that would “reward” Russia or its allies.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni, a key Dump ally in Europe, also called for a summit with the United States and European nations to discuss the war in Ukraine, saying that division makes the West weaker.

In the meantime, Zelenskyy has spoken to French President Emmanuel Macron and to European Council President Antonio Costa following his scathing exchange with Dump yesterday, according to a Ukrainian source with knowledge of the situation.

In a later statement, Macron said, “There is an aggressor, which is Russia, and an attacked people, which is Ukraine.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, “Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians do.” He later added, “Therefore, we are working on a common path to a lasting and just peace. Ukraine can rely on Germany – and on Europe.”

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said, “Ukraine, you’ll never walk alone.” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna cautioned that if “Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no Ukraine.”

There was swift vocal support too from key U.S. allies outside Europe, including from all other members of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that are among Washington’s most trusted partners.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would “continue to stand with Ukraine.”

Writing on X, Trudeau said, “Russia illegally and unjustifiably invaded Ukraine. For three years now, Ukrainians have fought with courage and resilience. Their fight for democracy, freedom, and sovereignty is a fight that matters to us all.”

Australia’s prime minister reiterated his country’s support for Kyiv, saying it will “continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

“We stand unequivocally with Ukraine in their struggle, because we regard that as a struggle for the upholding of international law,” Anthony Albanese said.

Meanwhile New Zealand’s leader Christopher Luxon said his nation remained “steadfast in its support for Ukraine as it defends itself in a war that Russia started.”

Notably absent from this wave of solidarity for Ukraine was Hungarian dictator Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a far-right populist and Dump ally, who took to X to stand with the lonely president. This jerk wrote, “Strong men make peace, weak men make war.” Is this asshole suggesting that Ukraine started the war itself just like the U.S. jerk of a president? I think he has the calculus altogether wrong here, don’t you think?

Even in Ukraine itself, there was a chorus of voices praising Zelenskyy for standing up for their country instead of capitulating to the bully of a U.S. president. “We are proud of our president. We are proud that he has guts to stand up for Ukraine,” Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Friday.

Merezhko said there’s “absolutely no doubt” that the Ukrainian parliament will back Zelenskyy. He said, “We are united behind our president but at the same time, we hope that wisdom and common sense will prevail.”

Ukraine’s military, who have spent more than three years holding back a far larger Russian force with the help of U.S. and European aid, also maintained a message of defiance, at least on public channels.

One military officer, who goes by the callsign Aleks, said on Telegram he doesn’t “give a damn” about the kind of peace Drumpf offers.

“It’s better to fight to death than to freeze the war and then be drained again in three years,” he said.

What these Western allies have proved in their steadfast support of Ukraine’s continuing war with Russia is that the United States has for the first time in a very long time become isolated and unloved since the inauguration of the convicted felon in January. Boy, what a path we’ve carved out with the misdirection of this immensely unpopular Supreme Leader! We have only four years to go, folks.

And so it went!

Bariloche

One of the beautiful lakes in Bariloche.

This could be the same lake, but I’ve had problems importing photos ever since we came home. I’m happy that I can do it again.

Here’s a sign from this lakeside town.

Here’s the storefront of the oldest bookstore in Buenos Aires, which was founded in 1785, as you can see. It’s called La Libreria de Avila.

This is the basement of that bookstore. Boy, too bad these weren’t English books. I could have spent hours down here.

This is the casino in Mar del Plata.

And So It Goes

Today is Friday, February 28, the last day of February. Today is also the day that the U.S. embarrassed itself bigly in front of the entire world when President Zelenskyy of Ukraine was blindsided in the Oval Office by the snarling, arrogant U.S. president and his Hillbilly sidekick JD Vance as they both ganged up on the former comedian-turned courageous president of a small country now battling Russia for three very long years. Here was the bearded Vance barking at Zelenskyy to show “respect” to this country and, by extension, to the bloated, septuagenarian president. Soon the meeting devolved into a shouting match between Dump, Vance, and Zelenskyy. This was done live on American TV and there had to be a reason for this to have gone the way it did. Maybe Trump was getting his orders from Vladimir Putin? Reaction to this sour meeting was swift on social media platforms. An online article for AlterNet by Alex Henderson entitled ‘I’m beyond disgusted’: Trump and Vance slammed for berating Ukrainian president” provides an immediate response from critics of the two leaders who confronted the Ukrainian president.

One of those critics, Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett, tweeted on X, “Wow. This is such an embarrassment for the United States. Trump and JD Vance literally switched sides in a war and sided with a murderous dictator. Now they want Zelensky to apologize and kiss their feet. This shit makes me sick.”

Liberal activist and singer/songwriter Bill Madden posted, “Watching Trump and Vance gang up and bully Zelensky, I have never been so disgusted and ashamed to be an American in my life.”

KrassenCast’s Brian Krassenstein tweeted, “This is utterly repulsive! Trump and Vance just tried to humiliate Zelensky live on American TV, smugly demanding gratitude while openly mocking him like playground bullies courting favors. My respect for Zelensky – and my embarrassment as an American – just surged off the charts. I’m beyond disgusted!”

Journalist Noelia Belen Izarza commented, “Trump and Vance just attempted to humiliate Zelensky live on American TV – smugly demanding gratitude while mocking him like playground bullies keeping score.”

Activist Lisa Vandever wrote, “This is so absolutely cringe-inducing, though between Vance, Trump and F/elon, hard to say which one is the worst.”

Democratic activist Michael Foreman posted, “I’m embarrassed by Trump & Vance. I’m embarrassed by any Americans who presume to tell a country’s president – whose country has been devastated by an unprovoked attack with millions of its citizens killed, permanently disabled, displaced or living under hostile rule by its invader – what he and & his country should or should not accept.”

If anyone thinks after this debacle of a meeting that the U.S. president ever had the interests of this country at heart and not the interests of an authoritarian leader of a dictatorship instead, then I have a dozen eggs to sell you for $3.99. Wake up, America: you reelected a puppet of Putin back to the White House, nothing more. And a common thug.

What everyone should admire is not Dump or Vance but the courageous little Ukrainian leader who rebuffed the taunts and lies thrown at him by the two men. Zelensky refuted the nonsense that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that provoked the invasion by Russia. He rejected the ahistorical nonsense that Putin only invaded Ukraine because he sensed former president Joe Biden’s weakness. He reminded those viewing the contentious encounter on U.S. national television that in fact Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and that the war raged for all four years Trump was in office the last time. He pointed out that he sought a diplomatic solution only to have Putin violate the terms of deals that had been struck.

It was not Zelenskyy who showed disrespect today, it was Chump and Vance who showed huge disrespect for an ally who has been invaded by a brutal superpower. People are now saying this day marks a significant shift in this country’s foreign policy. May God have mercy on this benighted nation!

And so it went!