Juri Alster

Lifted from Facebook. Courtesy of Chris Moe: As an American, this is getting harder and harder to watch. It's embarrassing, to say the least. But it's also becoming pretty damn clear that our traitor-in-chief has no intention of standing up to Vladimir Putin. Now we're hearing that Trump is willing to sit down with the leaders of Russia and China to discuss Ukraine, apparently without Ukraine even being at the table. Think about that for a minute. Three men sitting around discussing what they're going to do with somebody else's country. One of them is the dictator who invaded it, another has been helping keep Russia's war machine running, and the third is our president. And we're supposed to believe this is about peace? I suspect Trump will come away with some sort of agreement involving rare earth minerals or other valuable resources. Maybe another opportunity for his son to make a fortune. And there's a damn good reason to be suspicious. Donald Trump Jr. is a partner in 1789 Capital, an investment firm that put money into Vulcan Elements, a company manufacturing rare-earth magnets. Just months after that investment, the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan commitment to the company. And according to ProPublica, the White House helped push that deal through. So when I suggest Trump might be looking for another deal to benefit his family, I'm not pulling that suspicion out of thin air. Meanwhile, Ukraine could end up surrendering a third of its territory to Russia. And Trump will probably call it the greatest peace agreement in history. But what happens if Ukraine refuses? Is Trump going to threaten to cut off whatever assistance we're still providing? Or will he eventually threaten to join Putin in bombing the hell out of Ukraine? That is, assuming he has any bombs left. While these three men discuss the future of Ukraine, people are dying. Russian missiles are destroying homes, hospitals, power plants, and entire neighborhoods. Children are being killed. Families are being buried under the rubble of their own homes. Millions have been driven from their communities. Just this week, Russian attacks left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without essential services. And Ukraine says the United States failed to provide warnings ahead of some Russian missile strikes. What the hell are we doing? And let's stop pretending Trump's relationship with Russia started when he decided to run for president. His connections go back decades. In 1986, he met Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin. In 1987, Trump traveled to Moscow looking for business opportunities with the Soviet government. During the 1990s, he continued pursuing Russian real estate deals. By the 2000s, he was involved with developers and businessmen with Russian connections, including Felix Sater and the Bayrock Group. That doesn't prove Putin has something on Trump. But it certainly gives us plenty of reasons to question a relationship that has followed him through decades of business and politics. And now, after everything Putin has done, Trump continues treating him like someone we should trust. Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is bombing Ukrainian cities. Russia is killing Ukrainian civilians. Yet somehow Trump keeps finding reasons to criticize Ukraine and excuse Russia. We used to stand against dictators who invaded neighboring countries and murdered innocent people. Now we have a president who appears more interested in making deals with them than stopping them. And I have to wonder how much of Ukraine Trump is willing to sacrifice to keep Putin happy. A third? Half? All of it? How many more Ukrainians have to die while Trump plays businessman with a dictator? This is embarrassing. It's disgusting. And it's a betrayal of everything America once claimed to stand for. We Are the Broken Republic.