Tag: NATO

Posted on

The Fiasca in Alaska — Did both leaders lose?

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

August 17th 2025

By just about any metric, the so-called ‘summit’ between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump was an utter catastrophe for Trump. Visually, he looked horrible. He alighted from AF-1 and staggered along the arm of the T-shaped red carpet like a parody of Andy Capp, came to a halt at the intersection, turned, and applauded the approaching Russian dictator. If he had been physically capable, he might have dropped to his knees and kissed Putin’s boot. He may as well have.

Then he let the dictator inside the Presidential limo, something never accorded a visiting foreign leader before. Many commentators suggested the vehicle be swept carefully for bugs following the transport of the ex-KGB agent. One image shows Putin sitting next to Trump and apparently holding his nose.

None of the top people accompanying the two were diplomats. Most were involved in industry and finance, the sorts you might find at high-level trade talks. That creates the impression the top order of business wasn’t Ukraine, but rather a lucrative deal between the world’s two top kleptocrats.

It was accompanied with the extraordinary incompetence that is the hallmark of the Trump administration. Prior to the meeting, some aides printed out a copy of the itinerary, including some fairly sensitive information that assassins or people planting listening devices would find extremely useful, and then left a copy in the printer for some visiting tourists at the hotel to find!

Given how sullen and silent Trump was following their secret three-hour meeting, it was safe to assume Putin ate his lunch, and did so in a way that even Trump couldn’t fail to notice. Trump went on Hannity (the journalistic equivalent of a fascist cum dump) and his bluster was singularly vacuous and vacant. He looked and sounded like a hick who was beginning to wonder if he really should have traded the family cow for a handful of beans.

Putin made the scale of the concessions obvious the next day when he stated that Russia would accept nothing less than absorption of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as a condition for a cease fire.

Trump didn’t disgrace himself—that’s simply not possible. But he did disgrace America pretty badly. But he’ll pay: he’ll return to find California and major cities all but at war with his regime, food costs exploding as the tariffs kick in, and yes, questions about the Epstein files.

But one odd thing occurred that, if true, suggests that Putin slipped very badly. Quoting from the Guardian this morning:

Special US envoy Steve Witkoff has also been speaking to the media. He said on Sunday that Vladimir Putin agreed at the Alaska summit with Donald Trump to allow the US and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling Nato’s collective defence mandate (article 5: an attack on one member is an attack on all) as part of an eventual deal to end the war.

Speaking with Jake Tapper, Witkoff told CNN’s State of the Union programme:

We got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer article five like language to cover a security guarantee. So Putin has said that a red flag is Nato admission.

And so what we were discussing was assuming that that held, assuming that the Ukrainians could agree to that, and could live with that, and everything is going to be about what the Ukrainians can live with.

But assuming they could, we were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer article five, like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in Nato, we sort of were able to bypass that and get an agreement that the United States could offer article five protection, which was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.

If this is true, NATO needs to convene first thing tomorrow and hold a vote on extending Article Five to include the Ukraine. The United States is in the position where they announced this, so they can hardly turn around and veto the proposal without looking like absolute shite. Even Trump’s toerag Hungary would have to go along.

That would effectively end the Ukrainian conflict. Russia would hold their positions, but anything of an offensive nature would risk war with all of NATO, and at that, a war the economically and militarily depleted Russians couldn’t possibly hope to win.

I’ve heard that Putin has severe medical problems, up to and including Parkinson’s, and that mentally he isn’t in much better shape than Trump. Perhaps that is what lay behind this amazing concession. Or perhaps he’s crazy enough to think he could take on a coalition roughly double that of just America and win. I don’t know.

But we have a golden opportunity to end the fighting for now, and a pathway to perhaps getting Russia to retreated from the occupied areas.

Hopefully we won’t waste it.

Posted on

Donnie XOs the Constitution — His Mentis is non Compos

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

May 4th 2025

Donald Trump gave the clearest indication yet that he is totally unfit for office when asked by Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, “Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States, Mr. President?” An obviously confused Trump replied, “I don’t know. I have to respond by saying again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.” Like any good mob boss, he’s going to refuse to answer under advice of counsel and in accordance with the fifth amendment.

The thing is that you don’t need a lawyer to determine this particular presidential duty. The Constitution mandates the oath of office, as follows:

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

As for the oath itself, it can’t possibly be clearer. “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Yup. That pretty much covers it. There are parts of the Constitution that are unclear, or at least open to interpretation, but this ain’t one of them. I went looking for cases involving the oath of office, and all I could find were some lower case decisions that allowed that a bible wasn’t required for the oath of office. Nobody has ever tried to contest that the oath was unclear or open to interpretation.

And it isn’t. And yes, Donnie has taken that oath. Twice.

He did show a few moments of mental clarity during the interview, admitting that the Constitution doesn’t permit him to run again after this term of office, and that invading Canada probably wasn’t a good idea.

But asked about the rights of immigrants he’s persecuting, he replied, “I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the supreme court said. What you said is not what I heard the supreme court said. They have a different interpretation.” The decision was 9-0, which seems pretty clear. And this is the guy who wants to mandate that English be the official language of the United States. The court—even Slappy and little Scalia—admit that non-citizens have the right to due process. Again, per the Constitution:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

He’s still fantasizing about invading Greenland. Military invasion, at that. Well, Greenland only has about 56,000 people, about the size of Arcadia, California. Even with Elon Musk running the show, the mighty US military could probably invade Arcadia. Holding it might be another matter. The US spent nearly a quarter century in Afghanistan before writing it off as a bad job.

But Greenland has friends. It’s been a part of Denmark since 1814, and even though autonomous, is considered part of a NATO member. And NATO has one bedrock principle: attack any member nation, and it’s considered an act of war against all of them. That’s an area three times the size of the United States, with a combined $25 trillion economy, and a military budget about 65% of the US—and not as heavily afflicted with waste, fraud and abuse like the US one is. The US would be in the position of fighting Germany, only Germany would have the UK, France, and Canada on their side. Along with a bunch of other countries with a long history of FAFO.

So talk of invading Greenland is sheer lunacy.

Donald’s list of executive orders (which do NOT have the force of law, despite what Donnie thinks) are grandiose, ridiculous, incomprehensible and even cruel. One example is the one mandating English as the official language of the United States. Am I violating that directive by talking about Los Angeles? That’s Spanish. Terre Haute? (French). Illinois? (Illini tribe).

If I use the words color or honor in this essay, is that wrong? After all, the English spelling of those words is ‘colour’ and ‘honour.’ We would need a whole new set of characters for our numbers, because those are all Arabic. Would we have to write upper-case ‘q’ as ‘2’ like the English do? Pronounce the last letter of the alphabet as “Zed”?

If I get arrested and deported to President Bukkake’s Summertime Playground Gulag for the Woke and Non-white, is my lawyer in trouble for filing a writ of habeas corpus? That’s Latin, you know.

Most cookbooks would have to be banned.

We would have to throw out all our legal texts, and nearly all of our scientific and medical texts. (OK, Trump and his MAGAts would probably approve of that last bit.)

Finally, I would have to stop saying ‘finally.’ Usually the most welcome word in my essays according to readers, it happens to be French.

And on that note, I say, au revoir!

 

Posted on

Send Out the Clowns — Trump in Europe, Congress in Sane

July 12th 2018

“I can’t help but wonder when I see you looking there with a little smirk how many times did you look all innocent in your wife’s eyes and lie about Ms. Page.”

And with that, Louie Gohmert, well known as being the most vicious clown in Congress, managed a new personal low, talking that august body, the House of Representatives, with him.

Wait, did I say ‘august’? Silly me. It’s only July. Although a case can be made for Congress being August; after all, that’s the dog days, and Congress has no shortage of curs.

Gohmert was attacking Peter Strzok, the FBI employee who wrote emails to his girlfriend disparaging then-candidate Donald Trump. Gohmert was exercising whatever it is that passes in him for moral outrage to defend the honor of serial adulterer Donald Trump.

It was a low point, but not by much. The Republicans were doing everything in their power to discredit Strzok, the FBI, the Justice Department, and anything and anyone that might bring Donald Trump and much of their own criminal party to justice.

The ones that weren’t vicious were almost preposterously stupid. Paul Gosar, an Arizona dentist who got tired of working for a living and ran for Congress, said to Strzok, “I’m a dentist, OK? So I read body language very, very well. And I watched you comment in your interactions with Mr. Gowdy. You got very angry in regards to the Gold Star father. That shows me that it’s innately a part of you and a bias.”

Well, OK, then. Let’s see if we can recreate the situation in that air conditioned dentist’s office that made Gosar such an expert.

“Observe, Watson. The patient has his hands drawn into claws. His back is arched, his face is red, tears are streaming from the sides of his eyes, and he is emitting a loud, shrill, unpleasant noise. Do you note?”

“Amazing, Gosar. I have observed, and noted none of these things. How do you do it?”

“Acute powers of observation, Watson. Nothing more. But what do you deduce from this?

“The patient is, perhaps, a Democrat.”

“That is possible. Likely, even. But it suggests something a more immediate nature, Watson.”

“What would that be, Gosar?”

“That I forgot to administer the novocaine.”

Yes, he’s a member of Congress. Three terms now. The tide brings him in every two years, and the voters keep throwing him back. Bad teeth must be a small price to pay.

Republicans actually tried to threaten Strzok with contempt of Congress for refusing to divulge FBI investigation details that he is forbidden by law to answer. It happened like this: After declaring a motion to adjourn out of order, Chairman Goodlatte, who will never be associated with a tasty coffee drink, erupted in fury that Strzok refused to answer questions pertaining to confidential or secret FBI matters and threatened him with Contempt, despite an existing agreement that the committee honor such restrictions on what they could demand of him. Gleeful Democrats demanded the committee recall Steve Bannon, who also refused to answer some questions, but his basis was that to do so might embarrass President Trump.

They even tried accusing Strzok of claiming Trump supporters stink because he went to a Walmart in the sticks and “could smell the levels of Trump support.” Apparently metaphor is beyond the intellectual capabilities of the moral giants and magic dentists of the GOP.

The Republicans were betting the farm that they would find something, anything, to suggest that a) Strzok was tring to influence the 2016 presidential election and b) that the Russians were not. It’s safe to say they failed miserably, managing in front of a huge television audience, to thoroughly cover themselves in shit. Contempt of Congress isn’t a crime; it’s a sign of mental health.

Congress wasn’t the only branch of government making a complete ass of itself, of course. Trump barreled through Europe, doing all he could go blow up NATO. (Ironically, at the same moment that Strzok was explaining to the Committee that his remark that Trump must be stopped was based on Trump’s campaign pledge to make defense of NATO allies conditional on how much vig they put up.) He deep-sixed his own ally other than Putin by telling Prime Minister Teresa May publicly that she handled brexit all wrong.

(Remember the howls of outrage when Obama told the Brits that Brexit would move the UK down a notch as a trading partner to America? “Monstrous outrage” was one of the terms they used. According to Faux News, “Trump slams British PM over Brexit plan, warns US trade deal ‘probably’ dead in the water.” with the sub header, “Despite anger in London, Trump finds support in England’s pro-Brexit working“-class towns.” Oh, well, that’s OK then. He has support in Sheffield, so who cares what London thinks? )

Obama said Brexit was a mistake, and was clearly trying to interfere in someone else’s election, and that’s not a bit like Trump’s best budyy, that nice Mister Putin, who wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing.

Speaking of which, Putin and Trump meet in Finland next. No staffers, no aids, no interpreters. No witnesses.

It’s a truly terrifying prospect.

But perhaps Congressman/Dentist Gosar will read their body language as they leave the meeting, and tell us just how badly Trump has sold us all out.

NOTE: Article corrected to reflect that Putin and Trump are meeting in Finland, not Iceland as I originally stated.

error

Enjoy Zepps Commentaries? Please spread the word :)