Zelensky's rock and hard places

I feel so bad for Volodymyr Zelensky. Six months into his tenure as President of Ukraine, he is a changed man. At the centre of the US House impeachment hearings, he finds himself embroiled in controversies not of his doing, stuck in the middle between Trump and Putin. He has no chance to succeed. Ukraine has no chance to win the battles.

Yet, he has secured the release of a batch of prisoners who are suing Russia over torture. And he's made the cover of Time magazine in a year when Trump was only shown in caricature. His story was so hopeful. The comedian turned President who made a TV show come to real life. I hope he can endure.

While Trump stomps on US, Putin attacks Ukraine

The war in Donbas has been stepped up. The Russians began shelling on Sunday and haven't stopped. This is a test. A test to see how far they can push Trump. If he does nothing, as he is apt to do, then they will know they have the freedom to push hard into Ukraine.

Theresa May has stood fast with Nato in supporting the cease fire and sanctions. Trump has not. Let's see what happens next in this deadly game of chess.

Trump's America

Yesterday was the most bizarre day of the post apocalyptic era yet.

The entire senior state department staff resigned, Trump put a gag order on all govt. social media communications, spawning a plethora of altgov sites like altEPA, altNPS, altNasa, altNWS etc on Twitter. There have been no tweets on any of the official govt sites -- yesterday the National Weather Service was tracking a massive storm in the Gulf of Maine with 27 foot waves -- today nothing. The country's scientists are uniting and organizing a march on Wash DC -- hundreds of thousands already signed up. A petition on the White House website demanding release of Trump's financial data to satisfy emoluments constitutional requirement has more than 300,000 signature. The President has an insecure private android phone but no one is investigating his emails, his daughter and 2 senior staffers are registered to vote in more than one state, and he's going to investigate voter fraud by US citizens but not by Russia. Orwell's 1984 -- the originator of "alternative truths" as a tactic -- is an instant bestseller again. A White House staffer started tweeting the truth about a madman in office and was shot down. 

But the resistance is underway.