This is about an important joint statement about Ukraine.
In your reply to me, @volkris, it looked to me like you were fooled by Trump's recent dishonest statements about Ukraine. People who were not fooled are the governments of Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Finland, and the European Commission who issued a joint statement saying: "Ukraine has the freedom of choice over its own destiny ... The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine":
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/ukraine-vladimir-putin-keir-starmer-jd-vance-europe-b1242248.html
@RonSupportsYou @volkris
It will basically be a charade. Trump will make a blowhard proposal, i.e. Ukraine give up more territory and agree to fall on its knees. Putin will waffle and a day or two after the meeting strike Ukraine with everything it has. After that Trump will blowhard about Ukraine not accepting a good deal and most likely state the U.S. will no longer provide any support.
They are two of the most evil beings on the face of earth.
I tend to agree with one caveat: IMO a charade is a conscious deception while I don't think Trump is sufficiently connected to reality to realize that he's participating in a fiction, once again he's going to be used and manipulated by the real adults in the room.
This has been the story of his entire political career, though.
And another part of what's going to happen is, when Putin doesn't do what he convinced Trump to say was going to happen, Trump's support base is once again going to say this is Putin disrespecting Trump, not that this was Trump falling for an obvious lie.
@volkris @RonSupportsYou
Putin/Alaska meeting. This has me un-easy. The U,S. paid Russia $7.2 mil in 1867 for Alaska. There's been un-verified hints Putin wanting to get access to Alaska and/or the Aleutians. Previous U.S. governments firmly stated no. TACO wants a Nobel Prize, Hero Worship & possibly revenge against Canada. I can see him cutting a deal; access to the Aleutian Islands or Port Rights to the mainland. All that in return for Putin to skip out of Ukraine.
@volkris @RonSupportsYou
Plus ever since Helsinki I've always thought Putin has the goods, in some way, on Trump.
Putin has exactly the same thing all other world leaders have on Trump: the ability to stroke the idiot's ego.
That's it.
That's all it takes to manipulate Trump, nobody needs dirt on him or anything like that. Heck, the guy seems too brain damaged to appreciate the threat of blackmail anyway, as indicated by his performance in courts.
The thing is, since Trump is surrounded by a hundred different people all manipulating him to their different ends, he's not a puppet of any particular master, but just whoever is sucking up to him hardest at any given moment.
That may be part of his character but he is not a convicted felon for nothing.
He's a convicted felon because he's an idiot.
I think is really clear that Trump broke a bunch of laws, because he's an idiot who doesn't know what the laws are and doesn't care, but setting that aside, in this particular case the performance before the jury wasn't particularly strong.
Word is that the defense wanted to take out the key witness holding the prosecution case together, but Trump the idiot told them not to, and so he got convicted.
Because he's an idiot.
@volkris @RonSupportsYou
His Alaska Showtime was the Greatest Folly of all time. History will record how unbecoming and how unhelpful he was to Ukraine. From America's standpoint I feel embarrassed to the core. He has shamed our country. And the GOP and MAGA who put him in office, not once but twice should be on their knees before our Flag and the American People.
@BagOfNails I would say it's arguably worse than that: history won't record it at all because it was a complete dud.
Trump wants attention, that's really all he has going for him, and the Alaska summit is going to be ignored in the history books because it was a complete failure and no one cares.
I care. Am sure many others care. How do younger citizens learn about Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Genghis Kahn, Stalin and all the others who used their positions to imprison, kill or suppress the citizens they rule. History is an important part of life's education.
@BagOfNails All the people that you mention actually did things.
Bad things, yeah, that's why they're in the books.
Trump really didn't, though. He failed and didn't really do much of anything.
For better or worse the guy has a long history of just failing to do anything, and if more people pointed that out we might not be in this position.
@volkris This meeting will be remembered by history as part of the war between Russia and Ukraine.