Mike Johnson has long been a Ukraine supporter. But he loves Trumpy more. Here he is spinning like a top: In a stunning exchange on Sunday’s Meet the Press, Johnson took umbrage with the notion that President Donald Trump and others on the Right are “on Putin’s side” in the wake of the chaotic Oval Office meeting with Zelensky on Friday “It’s pretty absurd for anyone in the media or Democrats to somehow proclaim that President Trump, the White House, or Republicans in Congress are on Putin’s side,” Johnson said. “It’s a joke. We understand that he is a dangerous adversary and he is the one that provoked the war.” Of course, Trump expressed the exact opposite sentiment in a Feb. 18 statement — making clear he believes Ukraine, not Russia, was the aggressor which sparked the war. “You should’ve never started it,” Trump said of Ukraine. Welker promptly referenced Trump’s comment. “But Mr. Speaker, you’re saying that we all know that Putin provoked the war,” Welker said.
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Speak up, speak out. Loudly. Kevin Kruse offers perhaps the best summary of the Trump-Vance ambush of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last week: It’s nice how they’ve replicated the middle school dynamic of the insecure bully and his sniveling sidekick picking on someone surrounded by a circle of scared little boys who also try to talk shit so the bully doesn’t come after them. Or as the right calls it, “masculinity.” And on Brian Glenn, the Real America’s Voice reporter(?) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) boyfriend, Kruse adds: And I mean that literally — he’s [Zelensky] there pleading for funds to save lives and this sniggling manchild mocks his fucking outfit “It’s time to say it plainly. America’s leadership has switched sides in the war,” as the Kyiv Independent opinion page sees it. But, “The American people have not, and they should speak up.” Please do. The Kyiv Independent: Let this sink in. The president of a battered Ukraine, an ally of the U.S., became the first world leader in history to be kicked out of the White House.
Remember this? It was the middle of Donald Trump’s presidency, and he was—yet again—mad at Saturday Night Live. And he wanted the federal government to help him settle the score. In March 2019, the then-president of the United States had just watched an episode of the long-running, liberal-leaning NBC sketch comedy series (it wasn’t even a new episode, it was a rerun), and grew immediately incensed that the show was gently mocking him. “It’s truly incredible that shows like Saturday Night Live, not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of ‘the other side,’” Trump tweeted, long before he was banned from Twitter for inspiring a violent mob. “Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows. Should Federal Election Commission and/or FCC look into this?” Don’t be surprised to see Trump’s new stooge at the FCC, Brendan Carr, actually “look into” it. I can’t imagine how anything could be done but with the way things are going I won’t be surprised.
They are happening all over the country along with town halls full of angry constituents. Yesterday people lined the streets near the Sugarbush ski resort to protest JD Vance on his way to a ski weekend. People reportedly yelled at him on the mountain as well and he ended up leaving early: Of course the MAGA cultists, including Mike Johnson, say these are all George Soros paid protesters but that’s a lie. The Vance protest was completely organic, coordinated on Reddit and Facebook. People don’t need to be paid. They are trying to save the country. And the protests are about everything, Musk and DOGE, veterans, Medicaid, Ukraine, federal workers, Tesla all of it. I don’t know how long it will take people who aren’t tuned in to politics to fully grasp what’s going on but this is the important first step. Here are just a few moments I happened to bookmark over the last couple of days: Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas QUITS and LEAVES town hall early — after being criticized about Elon Musk and Donald Trump firing VETERANS.
Musk is a dangerous phony White House tech veteran, Waldo Jaquith, posted a Bluesky thread about what Elon Musk’s DOGE saboteurs did on Friday to a federal technology group where Jaquith once worked. We know by now (and as you read on Saturday) that Musk’s “waste, fraud, and abuse” pitch for the cameras and is as phony as Trump University. Musk possesses “scant interest in constitutional law” and considers oversight of his operations the “dictatorship of the bureaucracy.” His goal is not to improve government or even to shrink it (the Goldilocks question) but to hobble it. So under the pretext of cutting “waste,” he is in fact destroying the government’s ability prevent his becoming … emperor, or something more like Eldon Tyrell or Peter Weyland. Musk would enjoy the comparison. Pay attention: 18F, the federal government’s technology shop, was demolished by Musk’s team shortly after midnight. It was a cost-recoverable org, charging agencies for their expertise, using a consulting model. Its cost to government was negligible, its benefits huge. My team there once saved DoD $500 billion.
Trump felt a tingle up the leg after that one. Oooh baby.
For no apparent reason The pro-war crimes Sec. Def. is apparently preparing for war on the Southern border: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered about 3,000 active-duty troops to the southern U.S. border, including soldiers from a motorized brigade equipped with 20-ton armored Stryker combat vehicles, defense officials familiar with the effort said. The defense secretary approved the orders Friday, said two officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal Defense Department planning. The soldiers are primarily from the 4th Infantry Division’s 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Fort Carson, Colorado, and will be joined by soldiers specializing in engineering, intelligence and public affairs, the officials said. The Pentagon announced the deployment in a statement Saturday afternoon after the news was first reported by The Washington Post. Hegseth has ordered the deployment of the Stryker unit and a helicopter battalion to “reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States,” the statement said.
Some things never change:
More “Coming soon to an election near you” Think you’ve seen everything? N.C. Republicans propose that future voter registration drives be conducted with sample forms — facsimiles, not official forms. The sample forms shall be “for informational purposes only and shall not provide spaces for an individual to fill in the individual’s personal information.” So, Republicans would like to see voter registration drives that don’t actually register voters, just provide information on how someone might register on their own. It takes a criminal mind. Anyone who uses a genuine form in their voter registration drive shall be a Class 2 misdemeanor under proposed House Bill 127. Of course, there is a lot of heat coming down over N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin’s Trumpish attempt to steal a state Supreme Court seat.
There was a massive blow up in the oval office today between Trump, Zelensky and JD Vance. The so-called “deal” for the minerals is off and Zelensky ended up leaving the White House. Trump says that he won’t be welcome until he wants peace. By that he means that he won’t be welcome until he’s willing to grovel before him. I don’t think that’s going to happen. The blow up happened when Vance said Zelensky hasn’t thanked America. "You've gotta be more thankful" — remarkable scenes out of the White House as Trump and JD Vance team up to do Putin's bidding and demean Zelenskyy pic.twitter.com/wjp8UfqN0G — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 28, 2025 Oh really? Here it is you fucking jackass : This is how Trump sees it: Trump didn’t just yell at Zelensky and put on a big show of pretend dominance. It’s clear that he wants to abandon Ukraine, he hasn’t made a secret of it, and he made clear what side he is on today: Trump to a reporter who asks him about Russia breaking a ceasefire: "What if a bomb drops on your head right now … Putin went through a hell of a lot with me.