It’s his way of saying “Thank you.”

Behind closed doors, the consensus has been that other countries don’t want to get dragged into the current war in accordance with NATO mutual defense agreements.

But since Trump insists that he can end the war, that’s obviously not a consideration for him - by his claims, there will be nothing more standing in the way of Ukraine membership in NATO.

Which makes this announcement that much more significant - essentially what he’s saying is that even after the main obstacle to Ukraine membership has been eliminated, the US will oppose it.

Why?

Because… no, Trump is not Putin’s puppet. He’s something even worse - a cringing sycophant, desperate for affirmation from his strongman idol.

psychopath /sī′kə-păth″/

noun

1. A person who engages repeatedly in criminal and antisocial behavior without remorse or empathy for those victimized.

2. A person with a personality disorder indicated by a pattern of lying, cunning, manipulating, glibness, exploiting, heedlessness, arrogance, delusions of grandeur, sexual promiscuity, low self-control, disregard for morality, lack of acceptance of responsibility, callousness, and lack of empathy and remorse.

That’s what Daddy Putin wants, so that’s what Daddy Putin gets.

And you can be 100% certain that that blatantly wasteful spending is not going to be cut.

Meanwhile, paying people to oversee pollution levels and ensure that industries don’t make it so that people are poisoned by the air they breathe - that’s going to called wasteful spending and is going to be cut.

All so that a handful of billionaires can enjoy even more privilege.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

It’s not an accident that Muskntrump are slashing federal spending but Trump threatened a government shutdown to get the debt ceiling increased.

It’s all sleight of hand. The budget cuts are intended solely to cripple departments and programs that benefit common people or inconvenience the wealthy and empowered few, and all of the money that’s not spent on those programs and agencies (and more) is going be funneled directly into the pockets of the wealthy and empowered few.

NO money is actually going to be saved. It’s just going to be redirected, to even more directly benefit the wealthy few.

So… Trump voters?

Oh look - the Democrats are going to fight fire with lukewarm criticism.

Yes, that will surely work.

I think they’re analogous to people who would stand and watch a stoning, then congratulate themselves on not having thrown any rocks themselves.

You got the first half right, but the second wrong.

Netanyahu’s government doesn’t give a shit about Hamas. They never have. Hamas is just a convenient excuse for them to pursue their real goal, which is and has been all along to kill, drive out or subjugate every single Palestinian, because they believe that Palestine has no right to exist at all and that everything from the river to the sea should be theirs, no matter how many lives they have to destroy along the way.

It’s a solution to the problem of the Trump family not owning enough waterfront real estate.

Yes we do.

He’s leading a coup.

On behalf of the would-be US dictator Donald Trump, he and his mercenaries are taking control of vital government functions away from the duly appointed authorities and claiming it as their own.

I read about half of that and knew who wrote it.

…arguing in bad faith?

I love unintentional irony.

Yes, because if it was more open, there would be a risk of leftists gaining influence.

Huh - apparently just being not-the-Republicans isn’t enough.

The important question is, will the DNC learn anything from this?

I’m guessing no.

It’d be bad enough if that just meant that the US is for all intents a one-party system, but at this particular point in history, the future of the country and the lives of millions depend on effective opposition to those who are building a plutocratic/fascist oligarchy, and the exact institution that should be the vanguard for opposition is just a bunch of greedy pigs and cowards.

I sincerely expect future historians (if there are any) to have a specific name for this particular period in American history - something like “The idiot Age” or “The Faceplant Years.”

Broadly, this is just the sort of thing that can be expected when we allow positions of power to be held by people who are mentally ill.