Recently, the 3-year mark of Russia's invasion of Ukraine passed, which obviously isn't ideal for anybody involved, to put it mildly. Still, Ukraine stands strong, backed by the military hardware they've received from the West. Unfortunately, we went and elected a president with strong dictator tendencies who, at best, sees a lot to admire in Putin and his governmental setup, and wants to end the conflict soonest, in Russia's favor.
My god, the gall of Trump and company... first, they try to arrange a "peace deal" without Ukraine or any European partners being involved at all. Then, they try to pass the laughable claim that Ukraine started the war to weaken opposition. Then, most recently, they lure Zelensky to the White House with the promise of a "trade deal" with no security strings attached, that Ukraine would have likely taken just so the U.S. had some skin in the game... only to ambush him in an Oval Office photo op that, "somehow", Russian state media had somebody present live-streaming. And after that, many federal-level Republicans start saying things about how Zelensky wasn't very appreciative, and that he'll need to resign. Honestly, do you people think nobody's watching this farce?
Of course, at the same time, the whole "doge" business continues apace, now with threats that they're going to go after Social Security. Funny thing, though... in their haste to take an axe to everything they don't like and/or want to steal for themselves later (yes, I'm looking at you Elon), they both neglected to make sure they dotted their Is and crossed their Ts, which is coming back to bite them in court, and made cuts to things that are both visible to and cared about by many of their MAGA faithful, so the Republican enablers in Congress are starting to hear back on that in places like the "town hall" forums they love to hold. Of course, that means they're doing things like running away mid-forum and canceling future forums... and that's guaranteed to turn out well. Nothing builds bonds like performatively not listening to your constituents, after all.
So, now we're entering the "race" part of the whole "reshape government to Trump/Musk's will" thing. Will the bad guys manage to push through their desired changes and consolidate power before the Republican congresscritters decide that they'd rather risk Trump's ire over the heat (and likely much worse to come, historically speaking) they're starting to get from their constituents? Oh, and I suppose the off chance that the courts find a way to meaningfully interfere that SCOTUS won't overturn, although that process is, by design, slow enough to not likely play a role here.
Yeah, I'm definitely starting to see why Warren Buffet is shifting his investments to alcohol producers at this point.
