'These Little Men: An Everlasting Shame For America'
"In 'one of the greatest diplomatic disasters in modern history' - and a vile, petty, vindictive display that brought America's presidency somehow still lower - two boorish, bullying, treacherous thugs ganged up last week on a wartime leader and ally in a sordid show of support for authoritarianism, both theirs and a murderous Putin's. Their assault on Ukraine and democracy itself was both horror and urgent counsel: 'We cannot be made to be afraid of these fucking people. Our job is to speak up.'"
"The attempted ritual humiliation of Zelensky came as Ukraine, a small struggling democracy of 38 million people, is ravaged by a nation of 144 million led by a gangster. Having endured three years of war, he came to D.C. willing to meet with a hostile, unhinged autocrat, still fuming over the defiant refusal of a bribe that led to hisfirst impeachment and now demanding fealty and the rights to his country's rare minerals - the transactional end-play in which a country's sovereign rights are suddenly being bartered, under our new art-of-the-deal regime, for profit: 'Aid that was previously given for nothing must now be bought.' The proffered 'investment fund' carries no guarantees for security, but the bumbling crook who managed to bankrupt several casinos is sure his bestie Vlad 'will keep his word - I have known him for a long time' - even though Putin broke a 2015 Minsk ceasefire agreement on Crimea and the Donas under which Ukraine voluntarily gave up the world's third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and the U.S., UK and France promised to come to Ukraine's aid if he did so. Also he killed Alexei Navalny and keeps throwing critics out of high windows, but sure we can trust him."
"Still, Zelensky came, for the sake of his country, to negotiate with the party of Biff and its truculent, rapacious mob boss. Knowing of his illiteracy, he brought pictures of brutalized Ukrainian soldiers. Trump shrugged. Then, joined and abetted on cue by the despicable, unserious Shady Vance, they began to attack like schoolyard bullies shaking down a kid for his lunch money. Sounding like nothing so much as 'a couple of online Kremlin sock puppets,' Trump yelled Zelenskyy was 'gambling with World War III' (in a war Putin started) while Vance argued it was 'disrespectful' for Zelenskyy to 'come to the Oval Office and litigate this before the American media' (who he and Trump invited). 'Have you thanked us once?' he shrieked like an aggrieved dad to a sullen, inadequately grateful kid - one evidently unaware of the 33 times Zelensky has eloquently thanked the U.S. for its support. Still, Zelensky, likely the only one in the room with a functional moral compass, sat stoic as the lies were hurled and would not bend down to lick the boots. 'Two boys were yelling and having a temper tantrum in that room,' noted one observer. 'One man was not.'"
"He did though, fight back, even though Engllsh is his third language; Russian was his first. To Vance hectoring him about Ukraine's 'problems,' he asked, 'Have you ever been to Ukraine, that you say what problems we have?' Angrily defensive, Vance brayed, 'I've seen pictures of it.' 'During the war, everybody has problems,' Zelenskyy explained. Then, trying to convey the felt threat from Russia, he added, 'Even you. But you have nice ocean, you don’t feel now, but you will feel it in the future.' Trump, wrathful, scowling, exploded: 'Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. You’re in no position to dictate that, remember that. We’re going to feel very good and strong.' It was when Zelenskyy challenged Vance's clueless demand he accept Putin's 'diplomacy' by reciting Russia's past crimes and lies that Trump lost it, plunging into a rage spiral that instantly destroyed weeks of painstaking negotiation and rendered an 'emotional shift (that) was palpable.' A glowering, raging mob boss, he spluttered, 'You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. You're not in a good position. You either make a deal or we’re out. You don't have the cards.' Zelenskyy, calmly: 'I'm not playing cards.'"
https://www.commondreams.org/further/these-little-men-an-everlasting-shame-for-america