Law, Power, and Justice

We are all waiting for this idiotic meeting between the moron Trump and the dictator Putin.  Who knows what will come out of it.  Putin has already won a victory of a sorts by getting the meeting with Trump.  “I’ve solved six wars in the last six months.”  Says Trump.  Imbecile.

“Putin shows no interest in achieving peace.”  Bridgit Brink was a former ambassador to Ukraine.  She is on MSNBC.  She is running for congress.  Putin has been clear that the eastern part of Ukraine belongs to Russia (NYT, 8/15/25).  As another former ambassador to NATO says, Putin is seeking to divide the U.S. From the NATO allies.  He wants to convince Trump to force Ukraine to make territorial concessions, limits on its military and perhaps even a rollback of nato military positions in Eastern Europe. 

Sanger, David E. (8/15/25) NYT

• There has to be a cease-fire.  Both Ukraine and Europe maintain that there can be no negotiation without a cease-fire.  The question is how long such a cease-fire would last, and whether since Russian troops have been making gains on the ground Putin would even agree to one.
• The second issue is boundaries and whether Putin and Trump will try to redraw them, much as was done at the end of WWII.  Trump has mentioned and then withdrawn from “land swaps.”  (J.D. Vance said on Sunday that “we’re done with the funding of the Ukraine war business.”  (Note: Bastard). 
• Hegseth announced in the first month of the Trump administration that Ukraine would not be invited to join NATO.  One of the problems during the Biden administration was to say that Ukraine would eventually become part of NATO without out setting a specific date. 
• Putin is trying to expand the negotiations, bringing a business delegation with him hoping to convince Trump that U.S. interests in rare earths, critical minerals and other Russian assets would all be on the table.
• Putin is also dangling a new nuclear agreement with the U.S.

NYT (8/15/25)

• Trump called the president of Belarus, Lukashenko, while flying to Alaska to meet Putin.  He “heaped praise” on this Putin ally.

The Telegraph (8/15/25)  Jacobs, Sherelle.  “Ukraine has lost.  Britain must now prepare for Russia’s next onslaught.”

• It is time to put outrate, passion and wishful thinking aside and face facts; in what mat well go down in history as the West’s gravest foreign policy failure of the 21^st century, Ukraine has lost the war against Russia.”
• Britain must accept that the Ukraine war is all but over – and prepare for an even bigger brewing conflict.
• “that Trump hopes to seal the deal by granting Putin access to Ukrainian rare minerals has added a neocolonial whiff to the stench of betrayal.”
• The end to this war “will plunge Europe into its most perilous moment since 1939.”
• The Biden Administration “was content to keep the war in permanent stalemate.”  The Trump Administration is working to “nurture Moscow as an ally.”