Telling Zelensky that without US assistance Ukraine would have been conquered by Russia, Trump said Zelensky was in no position to negotiate.
“You don’t have the cards right now,” he said.
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”
…US allies in Europe – increasingly worried that Trump will force Ukraine into a deal effectively handing victory to President Vladimir Putin – quickly expressed support for Zelensky.
“You are not alone,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
“Ukraine, Spain stands with you,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, said.
The German foreign minister posted on X that “Germany together with our European allies stands united alongside #Ukraine – and against the Russian aggression.”
Democratic lawmakers in Washington reacted with shock.
Trump and Vance are “doing Putin’s dirty work,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer posted.
However, Russia was delighted with the collapse in relations between Kyiv and Washington, which has led the Western alliance supporting Ukraine for years.
…Trump’s Republican Party took a similar position, blaming Zelensky.
“I can’t believe most Americans, after what they saw today, would want to be partners with Zelensky,” Senator Lindsey Graham said.
In Kyiv, foreign minister Andrii Sybiha praised Zelensky’s “bravery,” while a source in the presidency said Washington appeared to be “openly playing along with Russia”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/trump-zelenskyy-meeting-transcript
—AFP, “Trump kicks Zelensky out of White House after shouting match,” FMT, March 1, 2025
Volker Türk alarmed at growing power of ‘unelected tech oligarchs’ and warns gender equality is being rolled back
The UN human rights chief has warned of a “fundamental shift” in the US and sounded the alarm over the growing power of “unelected tech oligarchs”, in a stinging rebuke of Washington weeks into Donald Trump’s presidency.
Volker Türk said there had been bipartisan support for human rights in the US for decades but said he was “now deeply worried by the fundamental shift in direction that is taking place domestically and internationally”.
Without referring to Trump by name, Türk, an Austrian lawyer who heads the UN’s rights body, criticised the Republican president’s measures to overturn longstanding equity and anti-discrimination policies, as well as repeated threats against the media and politicians.
“In a paradoxical mirror image, policies intended to protect people from discrimination are now labelled as discriminatory. Progress is being rolled back on gender equality,” Türk said in comments to the UN human rights council in Geneva.
“Disinformation, intimidation and threats, notably against journalists and public officials, risk undermining the work of independent media and the functioning of institutions,” he added. “Divisive rhetoric is being used to distort, deceive and polarise. This is generating fear and anxiety among many.”
Since returning to power, Trump has continued to attack the press. Last month, he barred the Associated Press news agency – on which local and international media have traditionally relied for US government reporting – from the White House.
His administration has launched a purge of anti-discrimination policies under the umbrella term of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and moved to slash rights for transgender people. At the same time, the administration has sent panic through communities with its widespread and muddled immigration crackdown.
Internationally, the US has moved to withdraw funding for international organisations that promote health and human rights, such as the World Health Organization, and imposed economic sanctions on the international criminal court, which is investigating war crimes in Gaza.
Washington’s traditional allies, including Canada, France and Germany, are feeling increasingly alarmed as Trump lashes out at democratic leaders while expressing a fondness for autocrats, including the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
In his speech on Monday, Türk presented a concerned overview of the global rights situation, saying the world was “going through a period of turbulence and unpredictability”.
“[What] we are experiencing goes to the very core of the international order – an order that has brought us an unprecedented level of global stability. We cannot allow the fundamental global consensus around international norms and institutions, built painstakingly over decades, to crumble before our eyes.”
He called out the growing influence wielded by “a handful of unelected tech oligarchs” who “have our data: they know where we live, what we do, our genes and our health conditions, our thoughts, our habits, our desires and our fears”.
Türk added: “They know how to manipulate us.”
The values, structures, and systems of the developed West have kept global war at bay. If we return to the survival-of-the-fittest colonial order but this time in a postindustrial age, the consequences vis-a-vis the Age of Empire and the world wars that inevitably followed it will be worse. The destruction will be catastrophic.
It's very
apparent that Trump lacks the intellectual sophistication to manage U.S.
security globally. Appeasement will weaken U.S. security worldwide and increase
the risk of war.
“Appeasement emboldens the aggressor.”
https://poetryofgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2020/06/political-aphorisms.html
Photo courtesy of Free Malaysia Today
ReplyDeletehttps://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/highlight/2025/03/01/trump-kicks-zelensky-out-of-white-house-after-shouting-match/
Gonzalinho
TRUMPISM IS FASCISM
ReplyDeleteTHE TRUMPIAN WORLDVIEW
By: Randy David - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:02 AM March 09, 2025
Politics is emotional. It is not always about rational problem-solving but about shaping the way people see the world. Leaders like Hitler, Trump, and Duterte gain loyalty not necessarily by delivering results but by reinforcing their followers’ perceptions—of their problems, enemies, and place in the world.
These politicians do not just sell a worldview; they also present themselves as the only ones who can fix what is wrong. Trump, the self-proclaimed master of the deal, claims he alone can restore America’s greatness—implying that the country has lost it. He explains the decline and suggests how America can recover its strength.
Trump blames past administrations for the country’s failures. He scapegoats diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, claiming they lead to unqualified hires, including air traffic controllers. “Wokeness is bad,” he declares, equating it with weakness and waste. He rejects America’s identity as a modern immigrant society, pushing a simpler worldview: only two genders, only one language—English.
Worldviews like these are difficult to disprove. The simpler they are, the more persuasive they seem. People cling to ideas that confirm their beliefs and dismiss facts that contradict them—what psychologists call confirmation bias or, sometimes, “myside bias.” But policies based on these simplistic views have complex consequences.
One of the most significant consequences of Trump’s worldview is its impact on global stability. He sees America’s allies as freeloaders. Nato, which has upheld US power in Europe for 76 years, is a “parasite,” he says, and should pay for its own defense. “If they don’t pay, I won’t defend them,” implying that the alliance’s security agreement is non-reciprocal. French President Emmanuel Macron has quickly checked him on this: “The Europeans were there when we were called for Afghanistan. They weren’t politely warned when (the US left Afghanistan). We are loyal and faithful allies.”
The same logic was at work when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House. Why should America continue to fund Ukraine’s war, Trump asked, when so many had already died? His message was blunt: Accept a ceasefire with Russia because “you’re holding no cards.” It was a humiliating moment for Zelenskyy, who found himself fighting not just for Ukraine’s sovereignty but for its dignity.
Trump’s trade policies follow the same pattern. He accuses Canada and Mexico of exploiting the US economy. In response, he imposed a 25 percent tariff on their goods, demanding they reciprocate America’s generosity by cracking down on border trafficking. Economists warned these tariffs would raise prices for US consumers, and American carmakers pleaded for a reversal, citing higher production costs. The policy was so poorly thought out that, after just one day, Trump suspended it until April 2.
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TRUMPISM IS FASCISM
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This worldview also explains Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization. He rejects the idea that America has global responsibilities. That’s why he shut down USAID, cutting off programs that had long been key to US influence abroad while alleviating the consequences of mass poverty worldwide.
…Trump’s worldview is simple and emotionally compelling. To him, it’s plain common sense. But the world is not simple, and the consequences of his policies are real. They reshape alliances, economies, and even the moral priorities that have underpinned a rules-based global order. In the long run, they will only make America weaker and more isolated—and humanity more divided and less capable of tackling global problems.
https://opinion.inquirer.net/181453/the-trumpian-worldview
The Trumpist worldview is the lifetime product of his personal values, beliefs, attitudes, and conduct, which have been defined by venality, dishonesty, egotism, chauvinism, and immorality, sexual misconduct especially—vices that may have served him effectively in his drive to accumulate billions around the world, but taken together are hardly suited to managing a global superpower according to a humane, balanced, knowledgeable, understanding, and sophisticated international strategy working in the national interest besides. Whenever a self-centered individual is magnified to operate on the scale of an entire society, it is transformed into a monster. If carried to its logical conclusion, the metamorphosis results in catastrophe. It is an outcome writ large in history.
The simplistic worldview of Trump that speaks dangerously to American populism is a defining attribute of historical fascism. Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal (2004), 5th ed. by Terence Ball and Richard identify at least two defining attributes of historical fascism—nationalism and irrationalism.
“Nationalism…is the belief that the people of the world fall into distinct groups, or nations, with each nation forming the natural basis for a separate political unit, the nation-state. This sovereign, self-governing political unit is supposed to draw together and express the needs and desires of a single nation. Without such a state, a nation or people will be frustrated, unable either to govern or to express itself.
“Although nationalistic sentiments are quite old, nationalism itself emerged as a political force only in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s. As they swept across Europe, Napoleon armies—the armies of the French nation—created a backlash of sorts, inspiring people in the various kingdoms and duchies of Germany, Italy, and elsewhere to recognize their respective nationalities and to struggle for unified nation-states of their own.” (page 176)
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TRUMPISM IS FASCISM
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Another attribute of historical fascism is irrationalism. According to Ball and Richard (pages 179-80),
“The final element in the cultural and intellectual background of fascism was irrationalism. The term captures the conclusions of a variety of very different thinkers who all came to agree with the thinkers of the Counter-Enlightenment that emotion and desire play a larger part in the actions of people than reason. Among these thinkers was Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the founder of psychoanalysis, whose observations of his patients—and even of himself—led him to detect the power of instinctive drives and ‘the unconscious’ in human conduct. In a similar vein, the American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910) held that most people have a ‘will to believe.’ Exactly what they believe is less important to them, James said, than that they believe in something. Psychologically speaking, people need something—almost anything, in fact—in which to believe. For the one thing that human beings cannot endure is a life devoid of some larger purpose or meaning.
“…Mosca suggested that people are moved more by slogans and symbols, flags and anthems—by ‘political formulae,’ as he called them—than by reasoned argument and rational debate.
“All of these thinkers—Freud and James, Le Bon, Pareto, and Mosca—were more immediately concerned with explaining how people acted than in leading people to action. Not so Georges Sorel (1847-1922), a French engineer turned social theorist and political activist. Sorel insisted that people are more often moved to action by political ‘myths’ than by appeals to reason. To bring about major social changes, it is necessary to find a powerful myth that can inspire people to act. …If enough people could be brought to believe in the myth…their efforts, inspired by this belief, would indeed lead to a successful revolution. What matters most, Sorel concluded, is not the reasonableness of a myth but its emotional power, for it is not reason but emotion that leads most people to act. And when the people act en masse, they can smash almost any obstacle in their path.
“This was the advice that Mussolini, Hitler, and other fascist leaders quite obviously took to heart.”
It’s plainly evident, affirmed throughout U.S. mass media—Trump, who rode to power on the horse of authoritarian populism, now seeks to establish a fascist regime by demolishing the U.S. Constitution. It’s no wonder that he smooches with dictators like Vladimir Putin.
Gonzalinho
DEMOCRACY: THE ROAD TO FASCISM
ReplyDeleteDemocracy, that is, democratic political systems, are a major avenue by which authoritarian populists vault into positions of power and then consolidate their power by assaulting the rule of law, one among the foundations of working democratic systems—exactly what happened with Trump and what is ongoing under the would-be dictator today. For years now he has been following the playbook of Hitler and Mussolini.
True, democratic elections are not the only means by which fascist regimes come into power. Military coups are one way by which fascist rule takes over a democracy.
Paradoxically, elections in a democracy open the door to fascism in contravention of democracy itself. It is self-inflicted dictatorship.
“Q: There’s been a lot of talk in America over the past few years about the potential threat of authoritarianism and the fragility of our democracy. As a historian, are you seeing that, and in what ways?
“KQ: Equating Italian Fascism with any other version of authoritarianism is dangerous and can be misleading. But I think it’s really important to study the conditions that gave rise to fascism in Italy and to understand how that happened because those conditions keep recurring. And there’s no question that we’re living in an international system that is giving rise to authoritarian regimes around the world, from Belarus to Brazil.
“Indeed, one vital observation that Max Ascoli made again and again to Americans in the late 1920s and 1930s was that fascism did not exist in an international vacuum. Systemic political, economic and social conditions gave rise to the phenomenon. Ascoli reminded Americans that fascism was born amid conditions of deep unrest and insecurity. Mussolini worked to deepen that unrest, to exacerbate that insecurity to such an extent that Italians ‘accepted’ what Ascoli called the ‘fascist peace.’ That was a fascist strategy: to wear Italian citizens down, exhausted from the chaos, such that they could no longer bear the cost of politics. In Ascoli’s words, they ‘could no longer pay the price of democratic political life.’”
https://news.csusm.edu/ask-the-expert-fascism-and-the-fragility-of-democracy/
—Brian Hiro, “Ask the Expert: Fascism and the Fragility of Democracy,” CSUSM News Center, November 2, 2020
“Democracy is thought to be the form of government that best opposes fascism, and democratic governments enjoyed long-term success in Western countries after the end of the Second World War. However, their success can be mostly attributed to a fresh and powerful historical memory of the war, growing – often booming – economies between the ‘50s and the ‘90s, and a general sense of wellbeing circulating in the population.
“However, the drastically worsening economic climate following the 2008 Great Financial Crisis has led to the resurgence and proliferation of radical right-wing groups and neo-fascist political movements, comparable to what happened after the 1929 Great Depression.
“Many believe that these political movements share few characteristics with the fascist movements of the 20th century, especially if we consider their use of democratic tools to promote and share their ideas…
“But as history has shown, fascist movements can emerge from democratic processes, taking over political power like a cancer.
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DEMOCRACY: THE ROAD TO FASCISM
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“Democracy is the government of the people. Popular opinions are dynamic and ever-changing entities…that can be manipulated by inculcating the idea that a drastic change is needed to restore a previously established – and well-functioning – system. Jewish bankers, leftist intellectuals, European pen-pushers, migrants and terrorists become, one by one, the scapegoats of a financial and cultural crisis.
“Democracy is not a perfect form of government, and its current structure may not be sufficient to prevent fascisms from arising again.
“Historical memory, for instance, is likely to be a much stronger means for preventing fascism, but it is one that inevitably dissolves over time.”
https://culturico.com/2019/04/24/is-democracy-the-foundation-of-resurgent-fascism/
—Federico Germani, “Is democracy the foundation of resurgent fascism?” Culturico: We Fight Misinformation, April 24, 2019
Gonzalinho
SIMILARITIES OF TRUMP AND DUTERTE
ReplyDeleteBy: Joel Ruiz Butuyan - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:55 AM February 27, 2025
Their similarities are uncanny. They speak with the same bombast, they make unreal promises, they turn friends into enemies and enemies into friends, they’re allergic to criticism, and they have no qualms about abusing laws and violating their country’s constitution. They’re none other than United States President Donald Trump and former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.
During the 2016 election campaign, Duterte made two promises to the Filipino electorate: he would end the drug menace in six months and he would ride a jet ski to the Spratly Islands and plant a Philippine flag there. In his 2024 campaign for the US presidency, Trump made two pledges to the American people: “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One” and “Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after we win the presidency, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled,” even emphasizing that “I will get it settled before I even become president.” All these promises by both presidents were not fulfilled, but the fact that they were made and were relied upon by the electorate, helped both Trump and Duterte get elected to the presidency of their respective countries.
During his term, Duterte repeatedly bad-mouthed the Philippines’ longtime ally, the US. He called then US President Barack Obama a “(s)on of a whore” and even told the latter to “go to hell.” In contrast, he expressed admiration for Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, declaring that “my favorite hero is Putin” and even calling him his “idol.” Duterte expressed similar admiration for the leader of his country’s erstwhile nemesis, mainland China’s president, by declaring “I just simply love Xi Jinping.” For his part, Trump has praised China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and even North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un.
…Duterte withdrew Philippine membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC) when the latter started investigating potential crimes against humanity committed during his bloody war on drugs. Duterte called the ICC “a bunch of criminals,” “bullshits,” and “idiots.” On the other hand, Trump has issued an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC, accusing the organization of engaging in “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the US and its ally, Israel.
Duterte mounted a so-called war against illegal drugs, resulting in the death of tens of thousands, the detention of hundreds of thousands, and other innumerable human rights violations. Duterte lumped all drug personalities, even mere petty users, as violent criminals who commit murder, rape, robbery, and other serious crimes. On the other hand, Trump is waging a war against illegal immigrants. His administration’s official policy is to consider all undocumented immigrants as criminals. Trump has described undocumented immigrants with dehumanizing terminology, calling them “animals” and accusing them of “poisoning the blood of our country.” Under Trump, the US has started deporting planeloads of undocumented immigrants and he’s considering a huge detention facility for them in Guantanamo, Cuba.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
SIMILARITIES OF TRUMP AND DUTERTE
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The electoral triumphs of both Trump and Duterte were boosted by online misinformation and manipulation. Troll armies or online influencers who spread disinformation and fake news have been supportive of the two. Both Trump and Duterte have repeatedly attacked mainstream media for criticisms against them. Duterte banned Rappler journalists from entering Malacañan Palace, while Trump has banned the Associated Press from the White House. Both Duterte and Trump have flaunted their countries’ respective laws and constitutions by abusing their executive powers. During his presidency, Duterte violated the citizens’ bill of rights with the many extrajudicial killings, illegal searches and arrests, and unlawful detention committed upon his directives or encouragement. For his part, Trump issued a “blatantly unconstitutional” executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship for those who are born on US soil. He has also infringed on legislative powers over the budget by freezing funds appropriated by Congress.
Their style of leadership, demeanor, language, and beliefs are alike. It’s as if Trump and Duterte came out of the same womb. An increasing number of countries are giving birth to leaders of their kind. Dark clouds are gathering on the horizon for the whole world.
Comments to fleamarketofideas@gmail.com
https://opinion.inquirer.net/181154/similarities-of-trump-and-duterte
Dutertismo and Trumpism are variants of fascism riding on the abusive exercise of the freedoms legally protected during elections in a democracy. It’s an old playbook written by Mussolini and Hitler that in postmodern times has been implemented to astonishing success. It appears that the appeal of fascism is deeply rooted in human nature. We are in for a very rough ride, possibly even slipping into another world war, God forbid, for at least several generations to come.
Gonzalinho
3 IVY LEAGUE SCHOLARS PLAN TO LEAVE US AND TEACH IN CANADA AMID TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S HIGHER EDUCATION BATTLE
ReplyDeleteBy Danny Freeman, CNN
Updated 1:39 PM EDT, Fri March 28, 2025
Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley, who is leaving the prestigious Ivy League university for Toronto as the Trump administration’s battle with higher education in the US continues, said mid-phone interview with CNN while walking the campus, “Hold on one second.”
A group of worried students approached the scholar as he walked the grounds of Yale Thursday in New Haven, Connecticut. Was he really leaving?, they wanted to know.
“I love Yale,” Stanley, who has taught at the university for 12 years, reassured the students. “But Marci, Tim and I, we’re gonna go defend democracy somewhere else,” he said, referring to the Yale colleagues joining him in Canada.
Stanley set off a firestorm at the highest levels of American academia last Friday, when he decided to leave Yale and the United States largely, he said, because of the direction of the country under the Trump administration.
“Suddenly if you’re not a citizen of the United States, you can’t comment on politics if you’re a professor?” said Stanley, who has written books such as “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them” and “Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future.”
“That’s crazy,” said Stanley, whose academic background is in social and political philosophy and epistemology. “That’s not a free society.”
The final straw for Stanley came after Columbia University made sweeping policy changes in an attempt to prevent the Trump administration from pulling hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding from the Ivy League institution.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/28/us/yale-university-scholars-toronto-trump/index.html
Notable that top academics belong in the same camp that I profess and name what is intellectually obvious to many—Trumpism is fascism.
Gonzalinho