Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the defenders of Ukraine and all modern civilization!
Today in the issue:
- Munich Conference. Is there a difference between Vance and Rubio?
- Gavin Newsom: Trump is dragging the USA back to the 19th century. But he’s temporary.
- “Peacemaker” Trump: can he change?
- Negotiations in Geneva. Medinsky heads the Russian delegation to a favorite place of all Soviet negotiators
▶ About the Munich Security Conference.
A year ago, conference participants were shocked by Vice President Vance’s speech, who openly declared the actual rupture of current USA with current Europe. However, expecting anything else from Vance was impossible. The attitude of modern American far-right towards modern Europe was formulated back in summer 2024 in the “Project-2025”, a program for establishing a right-wing authoritarian regime in the USA, isolating the USA from Europe, and the USA’s neo-imperialist ambitions in the Western Hemisphere.
All the theses Vance presented a year ago were reiterated in the National Security Strategy published by the White House last November. They were elaborated upon recently by the 47th President, speaking in Davos at the economic forum and in Washington at the national prayer breakfast.
The speeches of Secretary of State Rubio at the Munich Conference were anticipated, seemingly considering him the only traditional Republican in Trump’s administration and almost the only person in the entire administration who truly understands what’s happening in the world and the actual interests of the USA. And they expected to hear something new from him. Something different from what Trump and Vance say.
Such expectations, it seems, were completely in vain. Because Marco Rubio’s speech was simply a “cultural” version of what Vance and Trump said.
Indeed, does the content of what is said change if someone says: you, Europe, are losers because you have built windmills, allow immigrants in, destroy our common cultural heritage, compromise national sovereignty in favor of the ephemeral European Union, and we are not on the same path as you; we are only on the same path with those of you who agree with us, who will close the borders for immigrants, burn oil and coal, renounce “false” political correctness and defend their countries’ independence from the EU.
Someone else says: we and you, Europe, are very close, even more so, we are your children. We want to be with you. But for this, you must change, accept our understanding of a common cultural heritage, fight with us against immigration, and accept that there can be exceptions to the rules-based international order because it does not solve global problems. And if you do not change, we will do ourselves what follows from our vision of the world.
So, is there a difference? I do not see it. The tone is different. But the meaning is the same.
▶ The Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, clearly preparing for his candidacy from the Democratic Party in the 2028 presidential elections, said at the Munich conference on Friday that Trump is dragging the USA back to the 19th century. But he added that Trump is temporary, that he came and will go, but the USA will remain.
Newsom said this while participating in a panel discussion on climate change and the need to develop green energy.
But his words are globally true. Trump is dragging the USA back to the 19th century not only by praising coal and coal power plants, canceling regulatory norms aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. He is dragging the USA back to the 19th century primarily by denying the values on which modern liberal-democratic civilization is based, formed after World War II – freedom, democracy, human rights, equal rights for all people, and the rule of law.
Marco Rubio may appeal to Europe’s historical monuments, to the cultural heritage of the Renaissance era and even much earlier times. But all these monuments, this cultural heritage already existed when European countries and peoples were at war with each other, when some sought to impose their will on others, when two world wars erupted in Europe, taking tens of millions of lives, but when there was not that very modern liberal-democratic civilization based on values. On values understood and accepted by the countries and peoples of Europe after World War II. On values that formed Euro-Atlantic unity.
The denial by the 47th president of the USA and his administration of these values remains a fact. And on the denial of these values, “unity” can only be built with Orban’s Hungary and Fico’s Slovakia.
But the good news is that none of them are eternal in power. Neither Trump, nor Orban, nor Fico. And Gavin Newsom is undoubtedly right when he calls Trump temporary.
And European leaders understand this well.
There was another interesting aspect in Rubio’s speech. Without naming the author, he criticized Fukuyama’s concept of the “End of History.” A concept where, after the West’s victory, the liberal-democratic civilization in the Cold War with the Soviet Union and Soviet communism, there should have been no place for global conflicts, since with liberal democracy having won and spread over a significant part of the world, this world should focus on economic development, solving common global problems, and all its components should cooperate and assist each other.
Yes, the end of history, of course, did not occur. And Rubio is right in stating this fact. But who is the threat to peace today? Who wants to continue a history of wars, destruction, and depriving people of life instead of a new history of cooperation, prosperity, and development? The Secretary of State remained silent on this. And therefore, his abstract statement of fact seemed strange. He proudly spoke of the victory over Soviet communism. But he did not say a word about how, after the collapse of Soviet communism, Russian imperialism dressed in new clothes and under new slogans went on its bloody campaign against liberal-democratic civilization, posing the most direct threat to this civilization now, today, at this very moment.
Among American ultra-rights, since the collapse of Soviet communism, the absurd idea persists that Russia—being “white and Christian”—overcame communism and should be their natural ally in the fight against Communist China.
And so, the well-educated, experienced politician Marco Rubio, not being ultra-right by conviction but having joined an ultra-right president, as he sees it as a springboard to his significant political future in the Oval Office of the White House, did not say a word about the threat posed by Russia, did not say a word about the war against liberal-democratic civilization that Russia is waging, which it never really stopped, except for a brief, historically insignificant period after the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Listening to Rubio’s reasoning, portraying as a virtue that the U.S. under the 47th president seeks to “settle the war in Ukraine by bringing both sides to the negotiating table,” is deeply shameful. It is shameful, unbearably so, when the head of American diplomacy equates the aggressor, universal evil, and the victim of aggression and universal evil.
It seems that those who are pleased with the tone of Rubio’s Saturday speech in Munich, who feel relief, considering this tone better than that of Trump and Vance, are deceiving themselves.
Because it’s not about the tone, it’s about the essence. And the essence has not changed at all.
▶ Discussing the latest statements of the 47th president made on Friday, when he organized another TV show for journalists near the White House, saying “Putin is ready to make a deal” and “Zelensky should hurry,” makes no sense. Discussion should focus on what is new, what brings new information. There is no new information in Trump’s statements, just as there is none in his words about giving Ukraine and Russia 4 months and then “punishing both sides.”
People of Donald Trump’s age, and indeed all adults, very rarely change their views and worldview. Changing views requires some colossal intellectual effort, entirely new knowledge that is comprehended and changes the person’s deep essence. But this is definitely not about the 47th President of the United States. Donald Trump will not change. Nor will his attitude towards Ukraine, which, as he said in 2019, he “doesn’t care about” (according to John Bolton, his former national security adviser, and Gordon Sondland, his former ambassador to the EU).
When he was the 45th president, six years ago, in February 2020, the Senate held proceedings for his first impeachment. Trump was not found guilty because Republican senators, except for Mitt Romney, did not want to acknowledge the obvious.
Adam Schiff, now a senator from California and then a member of the House of Representatives and head of the prosecuting team in Trump’s impeachment trial on February 3, 2020, said in his concluding speech to the senators:
“The evidence of the president’s guilt is irrefutable. Donald John Trump stopped aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars to an ally at war and conditioned a desired meeting in the White House with their president on that country helping him cheat in our elections, which he coerced, which he extorted. And when exposed, he undertook unprecedented efforts in the history of presidential impeachment to cover up his misconduct.”
“This time he chose to use coercion. This time he chose to stop aid to a country whose soldiers are dying every week.”
“He will not change. He made it clear himself, without a shadow of doubt or hesitation. A person without character and ethical principles will never find their way to the truth.”
Even when his latest and most egregious offense was uncovered, he did not apologize, did not repent, and, even more dangerously, was not afraid. He continued to pressure Ukraine.”
“He will not change. And you know this.”
Of course, he hasn’t changed. And he won’t change. That’s the essence.
However, just as Putin with his barbaric attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy, with his cold warfare will never be able to force Ukraine to surrender, neither will the 47th president with his loud statements.
▶ About the upcoming negotiations in Geneva. It was impossible to expect anything from them in any case. The negotiations are a diplomatic struggle between Ukraine and Russia to ensure Trump does nothing in favor of the other side. The fact that the Russian negotiators will once again be headed by the powerless propagandist of Putin’s “course of history,” Medinsky, indicates that Putin does not intend to discuss anything at these negotiations, not even the technical parameters of a hypothetical ceasefire.
Geneva is a favorite place for Soviet negotiators, who spent years holding talks there with American delegations on arms reductions and the cessation of their aggression in Afghanistan “while saving face.” The Soviet participants in those negotiations were likely happy and dreamed that the talks, like their trips to Geneva, would continue indefinitely.
The only thing that could previously be negotiated with Medinsky was the exchange of prisoners of war.
Meanwhile, the American collective Secretary of State “Vitkoff-Kushner” will simultaneously conduct negotiations in Geneva with Ukraine, Russia, and Iran regarding its nuclear and missile programs.
In the next issue, we’ll discuss the latest news in U.S. domestic political life. There are plenty, and they are interesting – all pointing to serious domestic political defeats for Trump – including the forced withdrawal of immigration police and border patrol forces from Minnesota, the refusal of the grand jury to uphold the absurd accusations against six Democrats in Congress for conspiring to incite rebellion, the withdrawal of federalized National Guard units from all cities where they were deployed by the 47th president, and the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security due to lack of budget.
There are 1070 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).
Once again, a big thank you to everyone for the kind wishes for recovery. I feel better. Everything will be fine.
Thank you to everyone who read this. Take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Take care of each other, help each other. Wishing everyone health.
Ultimately, what happens in the world depends on us. Whether we fight evil, do good, remain mere observers, wait passively and believe that someone somewhere will decide for us, or fight evil and do everything possible to help good prevail.
We must not allow evil to win. The victory of evil would mean the end of the world as we know it. We cannot allow this. Especially now.
Ukrainian friends, I hug and love you all. Please take care of each other.
Ukraine is and will always be.
And evil will be defeated and punished. And this is inevitable.
