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not one hundred days yet, but a lot of dread....Let us pause the various constitutional crises, geopolitical showdowns, and DOGE dramas to make a simple observation: Donald Trump seems kind of busy, no? In recent days, he kicked off what the media have dubbed “Tariff Week” by declaring Sunday, February 9, to be Gulf of America Day. This occurred as he flew to New Orleans to become the first-ever sitting U.S. president to attend the Super Bowl and just before Fox News aired a Super Bowl Sunday/Gulf of America Day interview, a presidential news-making tradition that Joe Biden had blown off the past two years, in which Trump, among other things, (1) reiterated that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state, (2) declined to endorse Vice President J. D. Vance as his successor (“but he’s very capable”), and (3) referred to Gaza as a “demolition site.” Donald Trump Is Very Busy “We’re confused a little bit … But it’s definitely like, Something’s happening.” By Mark Leibovich
Trump spent much of the afternoon and evening getting fussed over by billionaires, celebrities, and other dignitaries in front of 127.7 million viewers, during the most watched television broadcast in history. He received mostly cheers when his ubiquitous mug was shown on the Caesars Superdome big screen before the game, which he watched with his daughter Ivanka and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell from a 50-yard-line suite. He closed out his weekend by stirring up bad blood with the Kamala Harris supporter Taylor Swift via Truth Social (“BOOED out of the Stadium”) and ordering his Treasury secretary to terminate the bipartisan menace of the penny.
READ MORE: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/02/trump-busy-second-term/681664/
YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.
Gus Leonisky POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.
GUSNOTE: "Thinking with one's intestines is also known as GUT FEELING..."
SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dieR2OEAxG0&t=79s
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too good?...
BRICS is ‘dead’
READ MORE: Modi meets Trump amid tariff tensionsTrump’s press conference also touched on his administration’s new tariff plan, which he said would ensure fairness by imposing reciprocal levies on countries that impose high import duties on American goods. He singled out India as one of the most protectionist economies in the world, ahead of his scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He took the opportunity to criticize the BRICS bloc for trading outside the US dollar system.
“BRICS was put there for a bad purpose,” Trump warned, noting that the bloc’s ambitions threatened the dollar’s dominance.
“They’re afraid to talk about it because I told them – if they want to play games with the dollar, then they’re going to be hit with a 100% tariff… BRICS is dead since I mentioned that. BRICS died the minute I mentioned that,” Trump stated.
GUS NOTE: BRICS ISN'T DEAD YET....
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Trump said he would “love” to see Russia reinstated into the G7, restoring the group to its former G8 configuration. He claimed that Putin would probably “love to be back” too, even though Moscow itself showed little interest in returning after the group suspended its membership in 2014.
“I think it was a mistake to throw them out. Look, it’s not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia – it was the G8. And you know, I said, what are you doing? All you talk about is Russia, and they should be sitting at the table.”
Trump suggested that excluding Russia was a strategic misstep that might have contributed to the Ukraine conflict. “It’s very possible that if that was the G8, you wouldn’t have had the problem with Ukraine,” he added.
GUSNOTE: THIS IS A WAY TO FORCE THE DECOUPLING OF RUSSIA AND CHINA...
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Trump also expressed his vision of reducing global nuclear stockpiles through direct negotiations with Russia and China. He revealed plans to initiate talks on military spending and arms control when the geopolitical situation stabilizes.
“At some point, when things settle down, I’m going to meet with China and I’m going to meet with Russia, in particular those two, and I’m going to say there’s no reason for us to be spending almost a trillion dollars on military.”
He pointed out the absurdity of nations continually expanding their arsenals despite already having enough weapons to destroy the world multiple times over.
“There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons. We already have so many you could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over,” Trump said, expressing optimism that both Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping would be open to such discussions.
GUSNOTE: SEE the art of the deal: donald cheated before....
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Trump made it clear that he believes Putin’s desire for peace is genuine: “I believe that President Putin, when I spoke to him yesterday… I think he wants peace. I think he would tell me if he didn’t.”
Dismissing the journalists’ skepticism, Trump reiterated that he trusts Putin on this issue specifically and criticized the Biden administration for not taking earlier action to prevent the escalation of tensions into a full-blown conflict.
“I trust him on this subject. I think he’d like to see something happen,” Trump added, emphasizing that “this should have been done by Biden years ago” and that the conflict “should never have been allowed to happen” in the first place.
GUSNOTE: BUT CAN YOU TRUST AMERICA — A COUNTRY RUN BY THE DEEP-STATE (a philosophy designed to DESTROY RUSSIA AND CHINA to control the entire world) despite ITS FRONT MAN?
https://www.rt.com/news/612684-trump-presser-putin-ukraine/
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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.
Gus Leonisky
POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.
the EU circus......
Trump ejects from the Ukraine joyride, leaving the EU screaming in the backseat
Western European leaders are having a meltdown because shutting them out from talks is the only way to peace
The European Union was never in the driver’s seat on the Ukraine conflict. And now that same toddler sitting in the back with the plastic Fisher-Price steering wheel is throwing the kind of full-blown crimson-faced meltdown that makes adults chuckle.
How many times was the EU told, including by its own citizens with sledgehammer subtlety at the ballot box, to stop kissing Uncle Sam’s butt and start covering its own? Instead, its leaders cribbed America’s talking points, completely oblivious as they indulged in economic seppuku.
The EU’s entire economy-wrecking “strategy” over Ukraine was based on the fantasy that they were America’s little bro, not being used as naive pawns in a grand game that would knock them right off the chessboard. If Washington had picked peace over profit from the start, the closest thing that the Euroclowns would have seen to a military confrontation with Russia in Ukraine would have been playing Sergeant Savoir-Faire back home, armed with a map of the nearest coffee shops and a five-course lunch.
And now the previously unthinkable has happened. The jig is up on Biden’s ridiculous scam of vowing to do “whatever it takes” for Ukraine to beat Russia on the battlefield – mainly by dumping cash into US weapons which miraculously get lost en route to the frontlines after the cheque clears.
Nice racket. Too bad it’s getting people killed – something Trump’s made it clear he’s not exactly a fan of. Looks like he’s finally asked himself if there’s a way for the US to keep feasting on cash without a body count in Ukraine. Spoiler alert: he found a way, apparently. Several, in fact.
Cutting to the chase through all this messy death and destruction stuff, Trump just wants to wrap up the fighting and have Ukraine hand over its resources to cover US spending — most of which has already gone straight into the pockets of American weapons industries. And can he keep the weapon sales flowing, even without active conflict? Absolutely. Just tell NATO countries to cough up some cash for the sake of “preventive defense,” like he’s been doing relentlessly. A solid 90% of EU-bought weapons are already American, according to last year’s EU competitiveness report. And that’s not changing anytime soon – unless the EU’s itching for a tariff-spanking.
A group of European foreign ministers have issued a statement insisting that Ukraine and the EU must be at the table for any peace talks. Yeah, they’re at the table alright – the bib-wearing kiddie table, along with Ukraine. And while they’re busy twisting balloon animals and tossing around buzzwords like ‘enhancing support for Ukraine,’ totally immersed in their ‘choose your own adventure’ game where they’re obviously ‘winning,’ it turns out that Russia and the US – Putin and Trump – did something totally wild. They picked up a phone. Probably even a landline, like something out of a history book. All while the EU was bravely ‘sticking it to Putin’ by flaming him on social media while wiping croissant crumbs off their keyboard between sips of overpriced lattes.
In the wake of that call, Trump announced the start of immediate negotiations for peace. And now the EU is acting like it’s just been dumped by Uncle Sam, who’s committing the added insult of hanging around with the guy on whom they’ve been obsessively hating. “If there is agreement made behind our backs it will simply not work because you need for any kind of deal, any kind of agreement, you need Europeans to implement this deal. You need the Ukrainians to implement this deal,” said the bloc’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas.
The agreement is actually being made right in front of your face and ours, for once – unlike the back-room shenanigans between bloc officials and the Biden administration, which ultimately lured the EU economy off straight a cliff with EU “leaders” serving as willing lemmings, sanctioning their own Russian supplies of virtually everything critical to their economy.
Now the German defense minister is yelling from the kiddie table over to the adult table, trying to tell Trump and Putin how they should be conducting their negotiations. “From my point of view, it would have been better to talk about Ukraine’s possible membership of NATO or the country’s loss of territory only at the negotiating table and not take it off the table beforehand,” said Boris Pistorius. Everyone’s really keen to hear advice for peace from folks whose strategy so far has resulted in perpetual war. That’s barely a step above Elon Musk’s toddler, X – the one who was chiseling away at Mount Nostrildamus for the cameras while standing beside his dad and Trump in the Oval Office the other day – offering Trump and Putin his take on negotiated peace in Ukraine.
Sounds like Western European leaders are currently experiencing all five states of grief at once, while frantically refreshing their inboxes to see if either the US or Russia have noticed their total meltdowns and slid into their DMs – and not just taken their freakouts as confirmation that ghosting them entirely was maybe the best way to handle the situation when they’re sounding like they’re on the verge of throwing every dish in the cupboard straight across the room right now.
“All we need is peace. A JUST PEACE. Ukraine, Europe and the United States should work on this together. TOGETHER,” insisted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on social media. ”Russia has to be forced to peace,” said Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze. No, dear, YOU have to be forced to peace. Now, please just go back to the kiddie table and wipe the spaghetti off your face.
European ministers and delegations had been meeting in Paris earlier this week for what they thought was an important strategy session – only to realize that they were basically just holding the equivalent of a corporate teambuilding exercise. While they were making all kinds of grand public proclamations in their echo chamber, like they were all jockeying for roles they could play in any eventual peace negotiations, it turns out that Trump and Putin were already finalizing the casting, and were even talking about bringing the curtain up. And they were suggesting that would be a two-man show, not an ensemble slapstick comedy featuring the EU big top circus troupe.
European diplomats are now telling the Financial Times that they figure they’ll be expected to foot the bill for Ukraine’s reconstruction – because Trump will insist on it – and also send troops to enforce a deal they had zero say in while the US refuses military involvement. Which is like getting handed a massive dinner check for a meal you didn’t even get to touch. Just picture it: EU soldiers walking around Ukraine at EU taxpayer expense to protect American resource ventures while US troops stay home, as Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has already stipulated, by adding that the EU needs to honor its commitments.
And Vice President J.D. Vance joined in the Trump administration’s stereoscopic spanking of the EU during their visit to the bloc by telling Europeans repeatedly – both during an artificial intelligence summit in Paris and before the Munich Security Conference – to stop censoring information and views they don’t like under the guise of it somehow being a peril to democracy.
The EU media has already suggested that it looks like the EU’s role is basically to shut up and accept the result of negotiations – like it has been kicked right out of the group chat before it even had a chance to log on, and still has to comply with the outcome of the meeting. Basically, at this point, Trump sees Europe as an ATM. Putin sees Europe as background noise. And Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky probably just sees his gravy train’s looming derailment.
Trump and Putin are already debating between caviar and steak for their peace talks while the EU stands outside like a rejected clubber, begging the bouncer to “check again, bro” – meanwhile, Zelensky is eyeing that tablecloth like a pyromaniac.
https://www.rt.com/news/612724-trump-ukraine-european-leaders/
WARNING TO PUTIN...: TRUMP IS NOT ABOUT MAKING FAVOURS BUT ABOUT MAKING DEALS THAT ARE MORE BENEFICIAL TO HIS SIDE.......
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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.
Gus Leonisky
POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.