[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

Trump plays tit-for-tat with China:

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China will continue to retaliate to the United States’ “arbitrary tariffs” and accused Washington of “meeting good with evil” in a press conference Friday on the sidelines of the country’s annual parliamentary session.

Wang said China’s efforts to help the U.S. contain its fentanyl crisis have been met with punitive tariffs, which are straining the ties between the countries.

“No country should fantasize that it can suppress China and maintain a good relationship with China at the same time,” Wang said. “Such two-faced acts are not good for the stability of bilateral relations or for building mutual trust.”

Second news item

Working on his national image??:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, used the inaugural episode of his new podcast to break from progressives by speaking out against allowing transgender women and girls to compete in female sports.

Newsom made his declaration in an extended conversation with conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old who built the influential Turning Point USA organization that helped President Donald Trump increase his support last fall among the youngest generation of voters. Kirk, like Trump, has been a vocal opponent of allowing transgender women and girls to participate.“I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that.

It is an issue of fairness — it’s deeply unfair,” Newsom told Kirk on “This is Gavin Newsom.”

“I am not wrestling with the fairness issue,” continued Newsom, who played varsity baseball as a college student. “I totally agree with you. … I revere sports. So, the issue of fairness is completely legit.”

Why is Newsom doing this, and why is Charlie Kirk his first guest? I think he’s prepping his image for a 2028 campaign announcement down the road. But certainly he can’t be thinking that he has a chance of winning over the evangelical right by announcing his change of view on transgender women in sports just because Kirk is in the room as he says it? Or does he hope this shapes his progressive image to a more moderate position? Perhaps he just wants people to know he can (and would) dialogue with Trumpers if he were a contender in 2028.

P.S. About Newsom’s empty seat? Looks like this familiar face hopes to fill it.

Third news item

Now we’re just hitting levels of downright stupid:

References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content, according to a database obtained by The Associated Press.

The database, which was confirmed by U.S. officials and published by AP, includes more than 26,000 images that have been flagged for removal across every military branch. But the eventual total could be much higher.

What bullshit. These are historical records that cannot be replaced once destroyed. Consider how Trump felt about the removal of the removal of monuments to Confederate figures:

“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” Trump said in a series of tweets. “You can’t change history, but you can learn from it.”

Oh really?! Well. You know. . .the monuments did only honor white men, so I guess this purge makes sense: once a racist, always a racist.

Fourth news item

Well said:

Rami Feinstein is an Israeli living in Akron , Ohio.

He got fed up with the hypocrites hiding their Jewhatred behing "concern for human rights".

Rami explains :

The "anti-Israel" people regularly come to Summit County Council meetings.
They call on the council to divest from… pic.twitter.com/ObPcKFwXO2

— The Voice Of Truth 🙌 (@thevoicetruth1) March 6, 2025

Fifth news item

President Macron steps up:

Poland and Baltic nations welcomed Thursday a proposal by French President Emmanuel Macron to launch talks about using France’s nuclear deterrent to protect the continent from Russian threats, a move Moscow quickly dismissed as “extremely confrontational.”

. . .

Macron said he has decided to open a “strategic debate” on using France’s nuclear deterrent to protect European allies amid concerns over potential U.S. disengagement. The French president described Moscow a “threat to France and Europe,” in a televised address to the nation.

France is the only nuclear power in the European Union.

Bonus points:

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday Macron’s speech was “extremely confrontational.”

Sixth news item

Checking off the boxes on his retribution list:

President Donald Trump on Thursday targeted another elite law firm that has represented clients he considers his political enemies, sending a forceful message that he is willing to punish firms who work for people or groups that oppose his administration’s agenda.

In an Oval Office ceremony, the president signed an executive order hitting the large international law firm Perkins Coie with a sweeping directive that bans the federal government from hiring it, or from using contractors who work with it, except in limited circumstances. The order also bars Perkins Coie employees from entering federal buildings and suspends their security clearances.

The firm represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential race, and it also contracted with the research firm that produced the now-discredited opposition dossier that alleged extensive contacts between Trump and Russia.

The move could have a chilling effect on law firms’ willingness to take on clients and cases that run counter to the Trump administration, challenging a fundamental tenet of the rule of law in the United States that everyone should have access to legal representation, experts said.

Seventh news item

Does Trump have any clue the high level of stress he puts Ukrainians under with his proclamations, that may or may not be advanced, depending on which way the Russian winds blow:

The revocation of humanitarian parole and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) threatens immigrants’ legal standing and contradicts U.S. commitments. This is particularly true for Trump’s threatened cancellation of humanitarian status for Ukrainians in the United States, given the Russian invasion of their country and America’s commitment to protect Ukraine made in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.

As legal challenges mount, the fate of all these migrants hangs in the balance.

. . .

Victor Rud, an attorney and representative of the Ukrainian American Bar Association, has been vocal about the dangers of these policies.

“Trump’s decisions regarding Ukraine and immigration are part of a broader pattern that effectively signals a surrender to Russian demands. His administration has appointed openly pro-Russian officials to intelligence agencies, erased U.S. capabilities to track Russian influence and sanctions evasion, ordered a ‘stand down’ of U.S. Cyber Command contingency planning regarding Russia, and halted both military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including funds needed to repair the power grid in the dead of winter,” Rud said. “He has demanded that Russia be reinstated into the G7, aligned with Russia in opposing UN resolutions condemning Russian aggression, threatened to disconnect Ukraine from Starlink, accused Ukraine of invading itself, and slandered Zelensky as a dictator.”

Rud adds: “Trump’s actions do not just jeopardize Ukraine—they systematically weaken U.S. influence, destabilize international alliances, and put millions of lives at risk. To deport Ukrainians under these circumstances would not just be immoral; it would be an outright betrayal of American commitments to its allies and an abandonment of our principles.”

Coupled with his unbelievable comments below, I’d say that the odds of Ukraine surviving the war have dramatically decreased, if Trump has any say in it.

Pres. Trump: "I think we're doing very well with Russia. Right now they're bombing the hell out of Ukraine. I'm finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. And they don't have the cards…in terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier dealing with Russia." pic.twitter.com/FAzsGOLEov

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 7, 2025

Trump thinks that it’s easier to deal with a murderous aggressor than it is with the victim, even as said murderous aggressor is “bombing the hell” out of the victim. And as said murderous aggressor continues to “bomb the hell” of the victim, Trump maintains that it is Russia that wants peace, not necessarily Ukraine. The only way one comes to this conclusion, is if they are doing Russia’s bidding. Always casting doubt on Ukraine, assigning them nefarious or suspect motives, pushing for a regime change. All the while Trump simultaneously sees only good in Russia, not even condemning them for “bombing the hell” out of Ukraine (which was only possible because Trump stopped giving Ukraine vital intelligence to ward off such attacks….

A Putin stooge hard at work.

—Dana