Hakuna Matata

Elon Musk is definitely capable of detecting the true location of the attackers. Enough is enough. It's high time that Starlink should be disabled for any location in the Ukraine!

Maybe also Ukrainian, Belarussian, Kazakhstani, etc.

Trump’s supposedly one-sided support for Russia over Ukraine In the past two days, major media have highlighted what they call Donald Trump’s blatant favoritism towards Russia by his withdrawal of U.S. materiel and intel assistance to Kiev. The morning news brings accounts of the damage caused to Ukrainian energy infrastructure, hotels and residential housing by the latest massive Russian attacks, which were facilitated, they say, by the lack of relevant intel warnings to Kiev of impending attacks. Granted that these measures cutting Kiev off from vital supplies are seen as pressure to bring Kiev to the negotiating table, they still allow the anti-Trump mainstream broadcasters to renew old accusations against Trump from the 2016 electoral campaign and then from his first term as being a friend of Putin, if not a dupe of Putin. After all, no such massive pressure is being directed at Russia, even if sanctions are threatened. Indeed, when asked by a reporter yesterday whether Putin was not taking unfair advantage of the U.S. cut-off of intel support, Trump said that Putin was just doing what anyone would do under the circumstances, fighting his fight with the greatest energy to end the war as soon as possible. The BBC and CNN are presenting on air so-called experts, including the impossibly partisan, anti-Trump former security adviser John Bolton, to inform us of the assumed personal dimension to state-to-state relations in which President Trump is acting arbitrarily. And what are alternative media saying about the favoritism being shown by Washington to Moscow over Kiev in the softening-up process ahead of peace talks? Frankly speaking, nothing. There are alternative media experts who have always been cheerleaders for Russia and they accept the present American policy reversal as normal, if belated recognition that the entire proxy war led by Joe Biden was imposed by the Deep State, which is finally getting its comeuppance as Trump and Musk wield a wrecking ball on traditional policies and institutions to solidify their own hold on power. There are also more sophisticated experts in the alternative media who are pleased to see the positive policy threads in what the Trump administration is doing, including the massive pressure now being applied to Kiev, but do not see past the verbal contradictions and bluster of Trump’s daily appearances before the public and do not credit him with having a prioritized scenario for ending the war justifying the term ‘brilliant.’ As readers of these pages know, I do see what Trump is doing to be ‘brilliant’ because the confusion he is creating is intended to disarm his opponents, of whom there are many on Capitol Hill, as well as many in foreign capitals who are surely acting in collusion with Trump’s domestic foes. However, in this brief essay, I put aside these issues and ask what is the objective rather than just subjective explanation of Trump’s latest moves against Kiev and mere tap on the wrist to Moscow while it blasts away generally on the battlefield and now enters into a big offensive in Kursk to encircle a large contingent of Ukrainian elite forces and to destroy others in the shrinking territory that they still control. Trump, of course, is doing more than just shutting down the supply of weapons and war materiel to Kiev, cutting Ukraine’s access to U.S. satellite and other intelligence essential for targeting offensive missiles and drones into Russia and for its air defense. It is likely that in the coming days, Kiev will lose its access to Musk’s Starlink network of satellites that presently assure field communications. That will be devastating for the Ukrainian war effort and is not really replaceable by anything that the Europeans possesss. There are two key explanations of what this is about. The first is to remove the United States from its position as de-facto co-belligerent with Ukraine in the war. Though the Russians never chose to press this point, de jure they had every right to declare war on the United States over its indirect but critical participation in the war. Moreover, Trump’s claim to be an honest broker in ending the war makes sense only if the United States is not a participant aiding one side in the way it has been until now. The second reason is to smash the false narrative of Ukraine’s ability to carry on by itself which Zelensky used in his dispute with Trump in the Oval Office. Let us recall: Donald Trump had told Zelensky that from the very start of the war, the Ukrainians could not have held their own against the Russians for more than a few days or a maximum of two weeks had they not received American military support. Zelensky vehemently denied that and said that he had heard the same from Putin. By withholding U.S. support today and letting the Russians proceed with their offensives as they wish, Donald Trump is holding Zelensky’s feet to the fire in the expectation that they will be more realistic, humbler in the peace talks which are to come. Otherwise, the Ukrainians would persist in presenting their demands for a peace that deprives Russia of what it won on the battlefield, thereby sabotaging the peace process. In the meantime, the Europeans are doing their very best to sabotage the talks by offering material and financial aid to Kiev to continue the war indefinitely. Their problem is that they do not really have the goods to deliver on these promises. In his own way, Trump is also messaging to the Europeans to come to their senses and acknowledge their impotence without U.S. participation. Yesterday, Washington announced that it will not participate in planning any joint military exercises with the NATO countries for the coming year. And Defense Secretary Hegseth indicated that more than 30,000 troops will be withdrawn from Germany and reassigned to Hungary, another clear indication that those European countries which remain defiant will be punished by the Americans without delay and without hesitation. Further European defiance can only lead to the total loss of the U.S. security umbrella. Do these measures seem to be arbitrary and issued at the personal whim of a narcistic President? Not if you are serious about your vocation as a geopolitical analyst.

Trump’s supposedly one-sided support for Russia over Ukraine In the past two days, major media have highlighted what they call Donald Trump’s blatant favoritism towards Russia by his withdrawal of U.S. materiel and intel assistance to Kiev. The morning news brings accounts of the damage caused to Ukrainian energy infrastructure, hotels and residential housing by the latest massive Russian attacks, which were facilitated, they say, by the lack of relevant intel warnings to Kiev of impending attacks. Granted that these measures cutting Kiev off from vital supplies are seen as pressure to bring Kiev to the negotiating table, they still allow the anti-Trump mainstream broadcasters to renew old accusations against Trump from the 2016 electoral campaign and then from his first term as being a friend of Putin, if not a dupe of Putin. After all, no such massive pressure is being directed at Russia, even if sanctions are threatened. Indeed, when asked by a reporter yesterday whether Putin was not taking unfair advantage of the U.S. cut-off of intel support, Trump said that Putin was just doing what anyone would do under the circumstances, fighting his fight with the greatest energy to end the war as soon as possible. The BBC and CNN are presenting on air so-called experts, including the impossibly partisan, anti-Trump former security adviser John Bolton, to inform us of the assumed personal dimension to state-to-state relations in which President Trump is acting arbitrarily. And what are alternative media saying about the favoritism being shown by Washington to Moscow over Kiev in the softening-up process ahead of peace talks? Frankly speaking, nothing. There are alternative media experts who have always been cheerleaders for Russia and they accept the present American policy reversal as normal, if belated recognition that the entire proxy war led by Joe Biden was imposed by the Deep State, which is finally getting its comeuppance as Trump and Musk wield a wrecking ball on traditional policies and institutions to solidify their own hold on power. There are also more sophisticated experts in the alternative media who are pleased to see the positive policy threads in what the Trump administration is doing, including the massive pressure now being applied to Kiev, but do not see past the verbal contradictions and bluster of Trump’s daily appearances before the public and do not credit him with having a prioritized scenario for ending the war justifying the term ‘brilliant.’ As readers of these pages know, I do see what Trump is doing to be ‘brilliant’ because the confusion he is creating is intended to disarm his opponents, of whom there are many on Capitol Hill, as well as many in foreign capitals who are surely acting in collusion with Trump’s domestic foes. However, in this brief essay, I put aside these issues and ask what is the objective rather than just subjective explanation of Trump’s latest moves against Kiev and mere tap on the wrist to Moscow while it blasts away generally on the battlefield and now enters into a big offensive in Kursk to encircle a large contingent of Ukrainian elite forces and to destroy others in the shrinking territory that they still control. Trump, of course, is doing more than just shutting down the supply of weapons and war materiel to Kiev, cutting Ukraine’s access to U.S. satellite and other intelligence essential for targeting offensive missiles and drones into Russia and for its air defense. It is likely that in the coming days, Kiev will lose its access to Musk’s Starlink network of satellites that presently assure field communications. That will be devastating for the Ukrainian war effort and is not really replaceable by anything that the Europeans possesss. There are two key explanations of what this is about. The first is to remove the United States from its position as de-facto co-belligerent with Ukraine in the war. Though the Russians never chose to press this point, de jure they had every right to declare war on the United States over its indirect but critical participation in the war. Moreover, Trump’s claim to be an honest broker in ending the war makes sense only if the United States is not a participant aiding one side in the way it has been until now. The second reason is to smash the false narrative of Ukraine’s ability to carry on by itself which Zelensky used in his dispute with Trump in the Oval Office. Let us recall: Donald Trump had told Zelensky that from the very start of the war, the Ukrainians could not have held their own against the Russians for more than a few days or a maximum of two weeks had they not received American military support. Zelensky vehemently denied that and said that he had heard the same from Putin. By withholding U.S. support today and letting the Russians proceed with their offensives as they wish, Donald Trump is holding Zelensky’s feet to the fire in the expectation that they will be more realistic, humbler in the peace talks which are to come. Otherwise, the Ukrainians would persist in presenting their demands for a peace that deprives Russia of what it won on the battlefield, thereby sabotaging the peace process. In the meantime, the Europeans are doing their very best to sabotage the talks by offering material and financial aid to Kiev to continue the war indefinitely. Their problem is that they do not really have the goods to deliver on these promises. In his own way, Trump is also messaging to the Europeans to come to their senses and acknowledge their impotence without U.S. participation. Yesterday, Washington announced that it will not participate in planning any joint military exercises with the NATO countries for the coming year. And Defense Secretary Hegseth indicated that more than 30,000 troops will be withdrawn from Germany and reassigned to Hungary, another clear indication that those European countries which remain defiant will be punished by the Americans without delay and without hesitation. Further European defiance can only lead to the total loss of the U.S. security umbrella. Do these measures seem to be arbitrary and issued at the personal whim of a narcistic President? Not if you are serious about your vocation as a geopolitical analyst.

OK, today you're in a peaceful mood... 😀

Yesterday’s breaking news in The Financial Times included an article from their Washington correspondent James Politi telling us that: The author then quotes directly from Trump’s latest message on his Truth Social platform: The author does not break out the logic of this statement, though that is highly relevant. Trump speaks of ‘pounding’ on the battlefield. What he obviously had in mind was the preceding evening’s massive attack on energy infrastructure across Ukraine using missiles and drones. What Russia was doing was to take advantage of Ukraine’s loss of U.S. intel that had been guiding its air defenses. Insofar as Donald’s domestic and foreign opponents might cry foul, accusing the U.S. of enabling this destruction, the President was now, quite logically, pledging to apply great pressure on Russia so that it, too, would hasten to the peace table that Trump is preparing. What amazes me is that colleagues in the nonmainstream media whom I greatly esteem for their worldly experience and intellectual sophistication utterly fail to see what Trump is doing because they still do not understand that he may just be a cleverer political operator than they could be. After all, we know that Trump is superficial, narcistic, a person who hardly reads anything. Consequently, they take his remarks at face value and scoff at the foolishness in his claim now to pummel Russia with new sanctions. They joke at his expense that the US has already thrown at Russia all the punishing sanctions it was capable of and that Russia’s remaining exports to the United States available for crushing tariffs are just enriched uranium for American nuclear power plants and fertilizer, without which U.S. farmers need not bother plant their seeds for the coming season’s crops. What these colleagues miss is that the latest threats to punish Russia were meant for the ears of Trump’s opponents, who are uninterested in the effectiveness of sanctions against Moscow and only want to hear that more sanctions are coming so that the Kremlin will finally be broken and submit to Washington’s will. Put in simple language, what Trump was doing was neutralizing his enemies, nothing more. And so, I ask: who is the better negotiator, Donald Trump or my far more sophisticated and intellectually consistent colleagues? I close this brief essay with a remark on another recent initiative of the Trump administration that has not been given the full attention of serious analysts that it merits. This initiative pertains to the Middle East. I have in mind the latest direct meetings between the U.S. hostage negotiator and Hamas over the release of U.S.-Israeli dual national hostages, the dead as well as those alive. The BBC and other broadcasters have mentioned this, have pointed out that it is the first such direct American talks with the terrorist organization, as Washington calls Hamas. But they do not explore what this means for U.S. – Israeli relations, although just a tiny bit of attention suggests there is a gold mine here to be explored. We have heard in recent days how Trump has threatened Hamas with dire consequences if it does not agree to Israel’s latest changes to what was agreed a month ago about the end of Phase One and start of talks over a possible extension into Phase Two of the cease fire. Lightning bolts would be delivered to the miscreants. And now it turns out that Trump negotiators are meeting behind closed doors with these same miscreants and are doing so without the presence of the Israelis, whose war it is after all. Has Washington finally extricated itself from the web of deception that Benjamin Netanyahu has been spinning for three decades? Hopefully someone with greater expertise and research in Middle Eastern politics will take this ball and run with it.

And their families too!

Wow, this is a bomb! Thank you for posting.

Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportations! https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plans-revoke-legal-status-ukrainians-who-fled-us-sources-say-2025-03-06/ Summary Trump administration move is part of broader rollback of Biden-era migration programs Some of those migrants could be subject to fast-track deportation Ukrainian and Afghan migrants face uncertainty under new policies WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation. The move, expected as soon as April, would be a stunning reversal of the welcome Ukrainians received under President Joe Biden's administration.

Yes, absolutely!

At what cost? Ukrainian lives do not matter, do they?

Yes, absolutely. Eventually, China, Russia and United States will divide the world into 3 spheres of influence. There is no place for Europe in this new project. Europe will be assigned to the Russian zone of influence. It doesn't mean that Russia will invade Europe. But Brussels will no longer be a center of Europe... What do you think?

Yes, he is a killer.

Trump Outfoxes Europe Today’s session took place during the countdown to Donald Trump’s address to Congress tonight. Rumor has it that he will announce the U.S. withdrawal from NATO. If he does so, then his sense of theater timing will be proven to be extraordinary. I say this because withdrawal from NATO, which we may assume was always in his plans, normally would raise rancorous debate on Capitol Hill. However, by a stroke of luck, the Europeans this past weekend, set the stage for such withdrawal by repeating the disastrous mistake of Volodymyr Zelensky during his meeting with Trump on Friday. I have in mind the capital crime of lèse majesté. You cannot publicly go up against the explicitly stated will of the President of the United States and expect to survive politically. This is precisely what the 19 European leaders who convened in London at the invitation of Keir Starmer did: they embraced Zelensky warmly, after he had been thrown out of White House; they called for a cease fire that entails European boots on the ground and American back-up support, which Trump very clearly said on Friday will not be forthcoming. They positioned themselves very clearly as the ‘war party’ when Trump has positioned himself as the campaigner for a durable peace here and now. If Trump does call for withdrawal from NATO, I expect he will get enormous support from those who are incensed at the temerity of the Europeans going up against their President. Another highlight of this interview is our discussion of Trump the Realist, Trump the Internationalist, even if and when he pulls out of NATO.