Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the defenders of Ukraine and the entire modern civilization!
Today’s issue:
- Trump retreated: there will be no shutdown. The Department of Homeland Security will either live by new, substantially changed rules, or remain without a budget. Trump is retreating in Minneapolis as well.
- Trump advances: Director of National Intelligence Gabbard is looking in Georgia for “evidence” that Trump had the election “stolen” there in 2020.
- The virtual world of the 47th president: a virtual call to Putin; for medicines to become cheaper in the USA, they need to become more expensive in France; if houses in the USA become more expensive, the president believes it will be good.
- Secretary of State Rubio in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: the whole issue is in the Donetsk region. Vitkoff and Kushner won’t be in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
▶ Trump had to retreat on a very principled issue. The current temporary federal budget is effective until midnight Eastern Time on Saturday, January 31. That is, it ends with the onset of January 31. And if a new budget is not adopted, a shutdown should occur again – a partial halt to federal government operations.
The previous record-breaking shutdown lasted 43 days – from October 1 to November 12.
After the brutal murder of Border Patrol officers (whose names are still hidden) of Alex Pretty in Minneapolis, followed by another brutal murder there by immigration police officer Rene Good, Democratic senators stated that they would not vote for the budget if it did not provide for substantial revision of the rules and requirements to which Immigration Police ICE and Border Patrol, which are divisions of the Department of Homeland Security, must adhere. Another option proposed by Democrats is to adopt a budget without funding this department, whose budget should be considered separately and adopted by a separate law, which should provide for new rules and requirements to which the department’s structures must adhere.
Since 60 votes are needed in the Senate to open and close debates on a bill, Republicans cannot pass a budget without the Democrats’ votes (Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate).
As a result of negotiations with the White House, Trump agreed to the Democrats’ demand. The Department of Homeland Security’s budget will be removed from the general budget. The department’s funding will be extended for only two weeks, during which Congress must develop a separate budget bill for this department alone, which simultaneously provides for significant limitations on the scope within which its divisions can operate. If the Democrats’ demands for the inclusion of new rules and requirements for the department’s divisions in the bill are not met, they will not provide the necessary votes in the Senate to pass the bill, and the Department of Homeland Security will remain without a budget.
Thus, the shutdown this time will be very short-term and technical. On Friday, the Senate will vote on the general budget until September 30 and funding for the Department of Homeland Security for the next two weeks. Then the budget bill must return to the House of Representatives. However, Speaker Johnson, as he usually does, sent the House on recess for the entire week, precisely when the budget needs to be passed. The House will convene on Monday to vote on the Senate version of the budget bill, after which the president will sign the bill.
The Democrats’ requirement became inevitable for the White House after Senate Majority Leader Thune put the budget bill to a vote on Thursday in the form it was previously passed by the House of Representatives, with full funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The voting results were 45 “for” and 55 “against.” Along with 47 Democrats, 7 Republicans and their leader Thune voted against, changing his vote from “for” to “against” to be able to reintroduce the budget bill for voting the next day, but in a modified form.
Republicans who voted against the budget did so not because they dislike the excesses of immigration enforcement, but because they advocate for reducing budgetary spending, primarily social expenditures. It became clear to both Thune and the White House that without the votes of at least 14 Democrats in the Senate, the budget could not be passed. And the White House evidently learned lessons from the previous shutdown (which it itself caused), for which most voters blamed Trump and the Republicans, leading to an even greater decline in Trump’s already low ratings. Clearly, another shutdown was not in the plans of the 47th president, as it could lead to a complete collapse of both his ratings and the Republicans’ chances in the November Congressional elections.
Apparently, the 47th president is retreating on another key issue, although he does not acknowledge it. His “border czar,” Tom Homan, who was sent on Monday to Minneapolis to lead actions of the Department of Homeland Security there, stated in a press conference early Thursday morning that immigration enforcement will limit its activities: if state authorities provide lists of illegal immigrants convicted in the state jurisdiction and serving sentences in its prisons, as well as those charged with criminal offenses, immigration enforcement will handle these individuals, reduce its presence on the streets, and cease its raids. Additionally, Homan stated that the number of immigration and border service units in Minneapolis will be reduced.
Meanwhile, federal authorities continue to block the investigation by the Minneapolis district attorney’s office into the murders of René Good and Alex Pretty, committed by federal agents. The names of Pretty’s killers are still not disclosed by federal authorities, and the evidence they hold is not turned over to the district attorney’s office. The federal prosecutor still refuses to initiate federal-level criminal cases for these murders.
▶ In contrast, the FBI is conducting an “investigation” ordered by the 47th president to “prove” that the 2020 elections in Georgia were rigged in Biden’s favor. The FBI managed to find a federal judge who issued a warrant for a search in the Fulton County Election Commission (a significant part of Atlanta) and the seizure of all documentation related to the 2020 elections. This search took place on Wednesday, led by the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard – a great admirer of Putin, Bashar Assad, and Snowden, who worked for Russian intelligence and stole gigabytes of secret documents and fled to Russia. As established by the Wall Street Journal, Gabbard has been solely focused for a month on finding “evidence” that Trump was “robbed of the election” in 2020. Think it’s madness? It’s today’s reality.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. By law, the Director of National Intelligence is a key advisor to the president on intelligence matters and the coordinator of all intelligence services, including the CIA.
That’s according to the law.
But in the era of the 47th president, the director of intelligence is engaged in living in the same virtual world as the president—there, in this virtual world, his “2020 election was stolen,” and the director of intelligence must “prove” it.
▶ The virtual world of the 47th president is not limited to the fact that his “election was stolen.” On Thursday, he held a cabinet meeting. The first one in 2026. And, as usual, he shared a stream of consciousness on various issues with his ministers. However, after this stream was shared, the 47th, contrary to custom, refused to answer journalists’ questions.
What the president said obviously related to the virtual world he created for himself.
He claimed to have asked Putin not to attack Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities for a week due to severe cold, and Putin supposedly promised him. Believing that Trump actually called Putin, or that Putin called Trump, is practically impossible. After each such real conversation, the 47th president writes a long tweet stating he had a “good,” “productive” conversation with “President Putin,” describing their “good relations” and “good mutual understanding with President Putin,” how “President Putin wants peace,” and so on. Since such a tweet was absent, the conversation likely did not happen in reality. Well, in the virtual world, anything can happen, anything the creator of their virtual world wants to place there.
Now, imagine the year 1940. The Battle of Britain is ongoing. Nazi Germany is daily dropping tons of bombs on London and many other British cities. And President Roosevelt calls Hitler and asks him not to bomb Britain for a week. Can you imagine that? I cannot. Although the US at the time had diplomatic relations with Germany, and in November 1939, the US Congress passed a neutrality law towards the world war raging in Europe and Asia.
But, most likely, the virtual conversation with Putin was not the only thing for the 47th president. He again developed the “theory” he discussed at Davos: that other countries, where prescription drug prices are much lower, are to blame for the high prices in the US. And supposedly this is because the US subsidizes these other countries. And if other countries raise drug prices, then those in the US will decrease. And he allegedly told President Macron that he should raise drug prices in France. And Macron allegedly replied that he wouldn’t do it. And Trump supposedly insisted that he should. It is doubtful such a conversation took place. But if it did, it only confirms that the 47th president does not see the boundary between his virtual world and reality.
But he didn’t stop there, saying he wants home prices for homeowners to rise. It’s hard to imagine anything more off-putting for those Americans who want to buy a home. The president wants them to pay more for that house. In his virtual world, it’s right.
And in the real world, his party is set to meet voters in the Congressional elections on November 3.
▶ Secretary of State Rubio, answering senators in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for hours on Wednesday, said that the stumbling block to “peace settlement” remains the Donetsk region. Russia “wants” it, and if Ukraine were to agree to cede it, then there would be “peace.” Although Rubio immediately said he understands it would be very difficult for Ukraine to agree to this. But he added, how, he asked, can Russia give up the Donetsk region when the government has been telling its people for 4 years that Russia won the war, hence such a stumbling block.
It’s very embarrassing for the Secretary of State. He is an educated person. He knows and understands everything perfectly. But he lacks a conscience. He just wants to sit in his chair, please his boss, and dream of one day occupying the boss’s chair in the Oval Office.
Another statement by Rubio that Vitkoff and Kushner will not participate in the next round of talks in Abu Dhabi this coming Sunday indicates that Vitkoff and Kushner do not believe any real agreements can be reached at these talks.
Unfortunately, no one in the administration of the 47th president believes that to force Putin to stop the war, military aid to Ukraine must be resumed and Russia must be economically isolated with new sanctions and blocking its shadow fleet. This is planned by 14 European countries. It’s a pity and a shame that the US is essentially standing aside.
There are 1,086 days left until the end of the story titled “Fear: Trump in the White House” © (the title of Bob Woodward’s book, published in 2018).
Thank you to everyone who read this. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Take care of each other, help each other. Health to all.
Ultimately, what happens in the world depends on us. Whether we fight evil, do good, remain mere observers, passively wait and believe that someone somewhere will decide for us, or fight evil and do everything possible to ensure that Good prevails.
We must not let evil win. The victory of evil would mean the end of the world we live in. We cannot let this happen. Especially now.
Ukrainian Friends, I embrace and love you all. Please take care of each other, I implore you.
Ukraine is and always will be.
And evil will be defeated and punished. And this is certain.
