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Our Mob Boss President Wants His Protection Money [1]
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Date: 2025-02-24
Some Donald Trump voters have claimed that it’s good for a businessman to run the country. When they said that, I figured they meant a legitimate businessman, not the head of a criminal operation. Who knew?
Well, we’ve known for a while now. Our four-time indicted, twice impeached, sexual assaulter, tax fraudster, insurrection inspirer, wannabe fascist dictator, convicted felon, president is once again trying to strong-arm Ukraine to give him something he wants.
The first time resulted in his initial impeachment: When he threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia if its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, didn’t announce his country was investigating then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. Zelensky wouldn’t play ball. You can imagine how high he is on Trump’s seemingly endless shit list.
Now, Ukraine and the world watches as Trump stacks the so-called peace talks between the two countries in favor of Russia and its president/Trump puppet master Vladmir Putin, and the president is doing his best Mafioso imitation by demanding a half-trillion-dollar payoff from Ukraine’s natural resources funds.
Nice little country there. Be a shame if something happened to it.
The New York Times published a story Saturday titled, “U.S. Pressing Tough Demands in Revised Deal for Ukraine’s Minerals.” Its subhead read: “The Trump administration wants revenues from Ukraine’s natural resources … with no security guarantee in exchange.”
This isn’t a new thing. It’s actually a revised proposal that contains virtually the same provisions that Kyiv previously rejected as too onerous, the Times reported. In fact, some of the terms appear even tougher than in the previous draft.
In other words, Trump is turning the screws on Ukraine.
Trump wants Ukraine to give the United States half of its revenues from natural resources, including minerals, gas, and oil, as well as earning from ports and other infrastructure, the Times reported.
The United States’ terms could also strip Ukraine of some funds that are now mostly invested in the country’s military and defense industry, and that could help rebuild the country once the war is over.
Trump wants this money directed to a fund in which the United States will hold 100 percent financial interest, and that Ukraine should contribute to the fund until it reaches $500 billion, the Times said.
This far exceeds the country’s actual revenues from resources, which were $1.1 billion last year. At that rate, Ukraine will be paying for hundreds of years.
It’s also four times the value of U.S. aid committed to Ukraine so far, the Times said. As for future aid, Trump wants Ukraine to contribute twice the amount that the United States might give it after the deal is signed.
At those rates, it sounds like a loan shark operation to me. No word that Zelensky has been told he’ll be swimming with the fishes if he doesn’t pay up.
It does say the United States intends to provide long-term financial support to help Ukraine develop economically. The proposal said the United States could reinvest a portion of the revenue into Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction.
I don’t know how strong a commitment “intends” means. And could isn’t the same as will, for what that’s worth, and we all know Trump didn’t like paying bills in his private businesses.
At the time of this post Ukraine hasn’t decided whether to accept the proposal. They’re the ones who first offered the idea of a partnership with the United States on its valuable natural resources as a way to persuade Trump to provide additional support for its war effort, the Times said.
But Zelensky had been seeking security guarantees for Ukraine as part of the agreement, which the United States isn’t offering. No surprise there. We know Putin wouldn’t like that.
You can read the Times story here.
It gets uglier. Reuters reports that U.S. negotiators pressing Ukraine for a deal have raised the possibility of cutting the country’s access to Elon Musk’s vital Starlink satellite interest system.
Starlink provides crucial internet connectivity to war-torn Ukraine and its military. Musk has denied the threat.
Just when you think our country couldn’t go any lower, play any dirtier.
You can read the Reuters story here.
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U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said the deal is good for Ukraine. “What better could you have for Ukraine than to be in an economic partnership with the United States?”
Oh, I don’t know, maybe an economic partnership in which a gun wasn’t held to its head.
Trump made it clear how he thinks when he said, “We’re going to either sign a deal, or there’s going to be a lot of problems with them”
Spoken like a true mob boss. “Them,” of course, is supposed to be an ally we’re committed to helping, along our NATO partners in Europe, not some country we’re hoping to shakedown before screwing it over in a peace deal that’ll heavily favor Putin.
But that’s the way we do business now, and I don’t know whether it’s more disgusting or embarrassing. It’s just another example of the rampant corruption Trump and his Republican crones are bringing to our government.
As Elon Musk -- when he takes time away from making a fool of himself by waving around a chainsaw at the recent CPAC conference -- dismantles our government and fires thousands of workers using the Protect 2025 blueprint, not to make it more efficient but to increase the wealth of the richest among us, now we have the pathetic sight of a weak, emasculated president trying to run roughshod over the rest of the world through threats and intimidation.
Well, I don’t know how much of this the rest of the world will take.
It looks like Friedrich Merz (I think of Fred Mertz when I see this guy’s name) will be the new chancellor of Germany after this week’s election in which centrist conservatives won the most votes, the Times reported.
The Times said this election “will now become an essential part of the European response to President Trump’s new world order.”
Merz has vowed to bring a more assertive foreign policy to help Ukraine and stronger leadership in Europe “at a moment when the new Trump administration has sowed anxiety by scrambling traditional alliances and embracing Russia,” the Times said.
“My top priority, for me, will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we can gradually achieve real independence from the U.S.A.,” Merz said. “I would never have thought I’d be saying something like this on TV, but after last week’s comments from Donald Trump, it’s clear that his administration is largely indifferent to Europe’s fate, or at least to part of it.”
As an American who loves his country but believes it needs to get knocked on its ass a few times so that we see the danger of the Trump presidency, I like what I’m hearing. Of course, it could be all talk, and Merz might end up rolling over to Trump. We’ll see.
And I’m hoping Zelensky turns down the deal. I don’t like bullies, even when they’re representing my country.
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