Flotsam and Jetsam - Did Democrats Set Zelenskyy Up to Fail?

Stacy McCain, Ain’t I Done Told Y’all? Democrats Pushed Zelenskyy to Sabotage White House Deal. "Note the time and date on that, please — shortly after 5 p.m. ET on Friday, I shared my suspicion that the real reason why that White House meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy turned into a s***show was that Zelenskyy had been encouraged by Democrats to “pull that stunt,” and now my hunch has been validated . . ." Phil Holloway @PhilHollowayEsq, "Oh … the democrats sabotaged it I’m shocked. Shocked! “Before meeting Trump, Zelensky met with anti-Trump Democrats who advised him to reject the terms of the mineral deal the president was offering, according to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn).”" Michael Goodwin at NYPo, Disaster in the Oval Office: Dems lead Zelensky, Ukraine off a cliff with pressure to reject mineral deal. Dave Strom at Hat Hair hears Democrats Encouraged Zelenskyy to Confront Trump, too. At RCP, Vindman: "I Demand" Trump Apologize To Zelensky, JD Vance Should Resign. I have the sense that the Vindman brothers loyalties lie with Ukraine first, and the US second, as long as a Democrat is President. Matt Margolis at PJM remembers Joe Biden Lost His Temper With Zelenskyy in 2022. Can You Guess Why? "Biden had barely finished telling Zelenskyy he’d just greenlighted another $1 billion in U.S. military assistance for Ukraine when Zelenskyy started listing all the additional help he needed and wasn’t getting. Biden lost his temper, the people familiar with the call said. The American people were being quite generous, and his administration and the U.S. military were working hard to help Ukraine, he said, raising his voice, and Zelenskyy could show a little more gratitude." Roger Kimball at Am Great on Dressing for the Role: Zelensky, Polonius, and the Theater of Politics, "Zelensky’s refusal to wear a suit in the Oval Office wasn’t just a fashion choice—it was theater, signaling defiance, playing to his audience, and raising questions about respect and diplomacy." John Kass, Zelensky the Fool. At RedState, Becca Lower has a SHOCK POLL: Frank Luntz Shares the (Albeit Unscientific) Results on Zelensky Freakout--Trump Will Love It. At Althouse, "It feels worth noting that in this moment, Zelensky decides to call the vice President JD, not Vice President Vance." "Observes Peter Baker in this morning's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast — "The Fallout From Zelensky and Trump’s Oval Office Meltdown" (audio and transcript at Podscribe). We hear the recording of Zelensky, with new focus on the dismissive "JD": "What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What? What you, what you, what do you mean?" Baker continues: "Perhaps history will not note this as an important moment. I noted it." Yes, the re-listen affected me. I felt that Zelensky was hoping to get under the young Vice President's skin and cause him to take it personally and react childishly. And, as we can tell from his subsequent interruptions, Zelensky wanted to talk about how the war must continue because Russia can't be trusted to keep a peace agreement."

RedState's Mike Miller, ABC's Stephanopoulos Tries to Match Wits With Rubio Over Zelensky Implosion — Any Guesses Who Won? 'Becca Downs at TownHall, Ted Cruz Warns of Far-Reaching Consequences for Zelenskyy After That White House Meeting. From Fox, Treasury sec reveals Zelenskyy nixed Trump's mineral deal twice prior to Oval Office blowup. "Appearing on ‘The Ingraham Angle,’ Scott Bessent told Laura Ingraham, ‘This has to be one of the greatest diplomatic mishaps of all time by President Zelenskyy.’" Twitchy, J.D. Vance Points Out 'Bitter Irony' of Lefties Demanding Endless Arms Shipments to Ukraine: JD Vance@JDVance, "The bitter irony of America’s present predicament is that the very people who cheer for permanent arms shipments to Ukraine also supported the de-industrialization of America. The very things you want us to send are things we don’t make enough of." Drew Berquist notes the NATO Chief is Not Pleased with Zelensky’s Trainwreck with Trump, Issues Warning. “It is important that President Zelensky finds a way to restore his relationship with the American President and with the senior American leadership team,” Rutte told the BBC on Saturday, revealing details of his call with Zelensky after the meeting. Rutte described the Oval Office exchange as “unfortunate.” Breitbart, ‘Absolute Idiocy’ — Zelensky Blasted by Ukrainian Lawmaker for ‘Arguing’ With President Trump in Front of the World. Sundance at CTH hosts Sunday Talks: NSA Mike Waltz Says Zelenskyy is Going to Need to Make Territorial Concessions, Sunday Talks: DNI Tulsi Gabbard Notes the EU/NATO Hypocrisy President Trump will Not Support and Sunday Talks: Secretary of State Marco Rubio Outlines Reality of Peace Deal Zelenskyy Refutes. CDB at Ace's on Propriety, Politeness, Knowing One's Place, And Other Lessons From Our So-Called "Elites."

Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald, "Hilarious: The unpopular Sir Keir Starmer says he will assemble a "coalition of the willing" in Ukraine: the phrase his Labour Party and Bush used to invade Iraq. He also boasts the UK will puts "boots on the ground" in Ukraine: but can only do so with "strong US backing."
Quote BRICS News@BRICSinfo, "JUST IN: Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the UK is ready to put "boots on the ground and planes in the air" to defend a peace deal in Ukraine." Catturd ™@catturd2, "Again, British PM Keir Starmer put on a huge dog and pony show with Zelensky yesterday, but when it came time to write a check, he gave 1/100th of what we've paid. Good luck with that. Zelensky is your problem now." Althouse, "Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain said Sunday that he would work with the leaders of Ukraine and France on a cease-fire plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine...." ""Mr. Starmer told the BBC on Sunday that he had spoken to President Trump by phone a day earlier. 'I’m clear in my mind he does want lasting peace, he does want an end to the fighting in Ukraine'.... The prime minister said that he, Mr. Zelensky and President Emmanuel Macron of France had agreed they 'would work on a plan for stopping the fighting and then discuss that plan with the U.S.' Any peace agreement 'is going to need a U.S. backstop,' Mr. Starmer added, saying that British and U.S. teams were discussing the idea...." Best comment at Althouse, "Seen at Instapundit: Polish PM Donald Tusk: “500 million Europeans are asking 300 million Americans to defend them against 140 million Russians.”" Sundance, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer Announces U.K. Troops Will be “Boots on the Ground in Ukraine” Leading a European “Coalition of the Willing.” "Prime Minister Starmer and this EU ‘coalition of the willing’ are only willing to put their military into Ukraine if the USA will be guaranteed to come into the conflict if the ceasefire falls apart." Also at Althouse, "I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Maybe not. Maybe not. Awesome. Awesome, awesome. You've got to make a joke. You know... legalize comedy! Legalize comedy! Come on, legalize it!" At NYPo, Why Trump still has a grand plan to solve the Ukraine crisis — even after booting Zelensky.

At Hat Hair, Distinguished Journalist John Harwood Has Deep Thoughts on JD. John Harwood @JohnJHarwood "Vance's rise from the Appalachian underclass is somewhat less impressive when you consider what a wretched person it produced." Auron MacIntyre @AuronMacintyre, "It can’t be overstated how central hatred of low-caste whites is to the identity and status of the left The idea of being ruled by one of the untouchables causes them to drop all pretense." Quote captive dreamer @captivedreamer7 "What is it about JD Vance that makes these soylennial types absolutely lose their mind? Filled with hatred."

Politico notes hopefully, 23 Dem AGs think they’ve cracked the code to fighting Trump "Democratic state attorneys general have been planning their lawsuits for a year." Fox, Federal judge rules Trump’s firing of head of special counsel was unlawful, will maintain his job, "Hampton Dellinger sued the Trump administration after his Feb. 7 firing." Obama judge Amy Berman Jackson.

Sarah Arnold at TownHall reports Pete Hegseth Just Obliterated Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton "Wouldn’t want to hurt Putin’s feelings." Also, February Border Numbers Are In – And They’re Looking Strong. Cathy Salgado at PJM, Bessent Calls Out Media for Hiding Economic Crisis Until Trump Took Office. NewsMax opines President Trump Chooses the Best and Brightest, and It Shows.

Bob Hoge at RedState, English Is Spoken Here: We Finally Have a National Language Thanks to Trump Executive Order.

Althouse, "Legally, the lifetime ban is over. His lifetime is over." "Said Jeffrey Lenkov, Pete Rose's lawyer, quoted in an ESPN report that says, "Commissioner Rob Manfred is considering a petition filed on Jan. 8 by Pete Rose's family to have Major League Baseball's all-time hit leader posthumously removed from baseball's ineligible list...." Here's yesterday's post about Trump's plan to pardon Rose and his statement that "Baseball, which is dying all over the place, should get off its fat, lazy ass, and elect Pete Rose, even though far too late, into the Baseball Hall of Fame!"

At Hat Hair, Capt. Ed wonders Time's Up on Gaza Cease-Fire. Now What? More death and destruction.

From ZeroHedge, Federal Employees Hate DOGE Because They Fear Meritocracy. "As Dan Aykroyd's character Ray Stantz notes in the movie Ghostbusters: "Personally, I liked working for the university. They gave us money and facilities. We didn't have to produce anything. You've never been out of college. You don't know what it's like out there! I've worked in the private sector ... they expect results!" At ET, Federal Workers Get 2nd Round of ‘Pulse Check’ Emails Requesting List of Accomplishments,

"Roughly 1 million of the 2.3 million federal workers responded to the first email" and Musk Is a Special Government Employee—What Is That?, "Because of special government employee allowances, specialized experts such as doctors, scientists, and business leaders have contributed to national policy." "This allowance, signed into law by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, gives permission for the government to temporarily employ experts without aggressive conflict of interest restrictions." At Insty, CHANGE: Department of Education announces launch of ‘End DEI’ portal. Related: DOGE reveals most savings at Dept. of Education with nearly $1B cut.

Matt Margolis, So That's Why We Haven't Seen the Real Epstein List. "Levin bluntly suggested a partisan motive behind the Southern District's suspicious stonewalling. "I assume the Southern District of New York is or has been holding this information for a reason," he mused sharply, indicating he believes left-wing political interests may be shielding high-profile Democrats potentially implicated by the documents. Levin didn’t mince words about his suspicion, reminding Bondi—and America—that "New York is a hotbed of the Democrat Party—that includes in legal circles." Bondi did not dispute Levin's theory. "As a lawyer, as a prosecutor, I want to review everything before I make a firm conclusion," Bondi carefully stated, leaving open the possibility of liberal obstructionism. "But I think it's very interesting that they withheld that from us.""

WokeSpy reports Trump Drops a Bombshell: Hints at New Investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden, just whose cocaine was that in the White House?

The NYPo ed board opines, The fight to fix higher ed is just beginning — here’s the hard road forward. Start with the money. Education runs on money. They'll do almost anything to get it. At the Freep, Deborah Lipstadt: Why I Won’t Teach at Columbia "I was Biden’s antisemitism envoy. I had been considering an academic appointment at the Ivy League institution. Not anymore." Nick Freitas @NickJFreitas, "NATO was originally established to combat communist aggression. Which means at this point its primary threat is Western universities."

'Sadie' Schreiner

From Fox, Women athletes don't compete vs. transgender in Team USA track event, giving default victory to trans athlete "The trans athlete then competed against multiple teenage opponents in another event, taking first place from a 14-year-old." "Transgender track and field athlete Sadie Schreiner took first place at the USA Track and Field (USATF) Open Masters Championships in the women's 400-meter dash in New York Saturday. The other participants in the event, Anna Vidolova and Amaris Hiatt, have no recorded times and are listed as DNS, did not start. Schreiner is 21 years old, while Vidolova is just 17, and Hiatt is 16." Twitchy sees a BACKPEDAL! Lefties Now Say They Never Demanded We Accept Trans Women As Real Women.

The Wombat has FMJRA 2.0: Return to Mediocrity ready and willing at The Other McCain.