Law prof, Georgetown; former CBPP, Community Legal Services, UFW; interested in law, legislation, the budget, and social justice, not necessarily in that order.
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Absurd that anyone takes what Pres. Trump says about this seriously. Countless videos of Zelenskyy agreeing to unconditional talks over the years, countless videos of Peskov and Lavrov refusing talks. I rebutted the argument that Zelenskyy is the obstacle.
thehill.com/opinion/internat…
"OMG, BREAKING NEWS!💥❗️💥❗️ Ukraine lost, it's done, Zelenskyy agreed to freeze the frontline." - said every russian shill or idiot in the last two days.
Zelenskyy and Ukraine accepted an unconditional ceasefire in March 2025, and since then the offer has been on the table. russia keeps refusing it.
Zelenskyy reminds people about it often in his public speeches, and military analysts, OSINTers, journalists, and interviewers occasionally bring it up. Hell, I remind people about it all the time. Why? Because russian propaganda (and Trump for some reason) likes to say that Zelenskyy is refusing a "peace deal," so this is a piece of information they like to overlook. Or pretend it doesn't exist.
But it does. Ukraine has been proposing to freeze the frontline and move to diplomacy for years. Russia demands we surrender the rest of the Donbas, a land with our people in it, the most fortified part of Ukraine, and the gateway to starting the siege of Dnipro, Kharkiv, and the rest of Ukraine, just to START diplomacy.
Yes, not to end the war, just to start the talks. In which they are going to demand the same things they demanded in Istanbul: no military support, no army for Ukraine, no equipment, no alliances, essentially no independence and no power to resist further aggression.
When Ukraine inevitably refuses to surrender in a war it hasn't lost, russian propaganda will declare we refused a "peace deal" and the russian army will proceed with its aggression, except now beyond the most fortified part of Ukraine.
Needless to say, no one will ever agree to this scenario, so freezing the frontline and moving to diplomacy is logical, and Ukraine agreed to that years ago.
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My latest on why Pres. Trump is wrong that wartime elections in Ukraine would bring peace. A change of presidents in Russia, however, might: Putin is continuing his failed war only to save face.
Would a new president end Russia’s war on Ukraine? thehill.com/opinion/internat…
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DavidASuper retweeted
Ce que dit ici Budanov 🇺🇦 est très important, parce qu'il détaille implicitement la stratégie russe 🇷🇺 pour ne pas arrêter la guerre.
La Russie revendique le contrôle de 6 500 km² de plus que l'Ukraine, comme le montre la carte. On y compte 5 villes partiellement ou totalement sous contrôle ukrainien : Koupiansk, Lyman, Kostiantynivka, Dobropilla et Orikhiv.
Les zones en jaune sont celles que Moscou revendique comme étant sous son contrôle (ce qui est faux et a déjà été prouvé de nombreuses fois). En cas de négociations, la Russie fera tergiverser toute avancée en demandant aux ukrainiens de respecter leur ligne. En cas de cessez-le-feu, c'est aussi un moyen de le violer facilement, en accusant les ukrainiens de tirer sur des soldats russes alors que ceux-ci seront parfois 10-15 km derrière la ligne de front réelle.
Jour après jour, les ukrainiens répètent qu'ils sont prêts à des négociations, demandent un cessez-le-feu sur les lignes actuelles et proposent des cessez-le-feu aériens. À chaque fois, la Russie refuse ou tente de manipuler la négociation avec des mensonges.
Cette carte est le témoin que la Russie ne compte pas stopper la guerre. On pourra aller à Moscou autant que nous le voudrons, parler à Poutine aussi souvent qu'il le faudra, tant qu'il croit qu'il peut gagner, il continuera. C'est pour cette raison que je suis très pessimiste et que je crois que la guerre durera encore des années si aucune avancée décisive n'est faite. À moins de forcer les ukrainiens à se retirer de leur territoire souverain (ce qu'ils ne comptent pas faire), pas grand-chose ne pourra arrêter la guerre.
Carte de : @M0nstas comparant DeepState et RIA
Right now, difficult negotiations are underway in pursuit of a lasting peace, which is needed not only by Ukraine.
At this difficult moment, it is essential that all sides take a measured approach, including by realistically assessing the situation and communicating truthful information.
The objective fact is that Dobropillia remains under Ukrainian control, so there can be no talk of Russian forces having “captured” this Ukrainian city.
At the same time, the commander of Russia’s Group of Forces "Center," Colonel General Andrey Ivanayev, is deliberately misinforming the Russian president, intimidating his own subordinates and setting them impossible tasks, demanding that they demonstrate the capture of the Ukrainian city of Dobropillia at any cost, because Ivanayev himself has already reported that it has been captured.
Ukraine’s Defense Forces are holding their positions to protect our state’s interests and our land. No false statements will change reality.
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DavidASuper retweeted
Rubio: "President Trump is most certainly angry and frustrated at the lack of progress in Russia-Ukraine negotiations after having dedicated almost 2 years to it now."
Marco, oh Marco... The cause of your anger and frustration, your lack of progress, sits in the Kremlin and has a name. He is rejecting every ceasefire you propose except the ones where Ukraine is asked to surrender.
You suggested an unconditional ceasefire back in March 2025. Ukraine accepted, so why isn’t it happening? Probably because someone else didn’t. The aggressor, maybe?
We suggested a ceasefire on energy strikes, exactly what you want, too. So why isn’t it happening? Who is refusing? Russia.
I get it, it must be so annoying that some pesky Ukrainians and their fight for literal survival stand between you and your bestie merging in a sweet ecstasy of… dealmaking. But we will not surrender, regardless.
Seriously, what happened to this man???
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DavidASuper retweeted
"Some U.S. officials say that Musk acted unilaterally and that Trump didn’t specifically order any retribution against Ukraine. But a person familiar with the situation said Musk talked to multiple senior administration officials, including with Trump, before imposing the new speed cap, which Ukrainian officials said had allowed Russian missiles to evade their defenses."
Once again, for emphasis: this is Elon Musk unilaterally violating a contract between his company and a paying customer in a mission-critical situation, where lives were at risk and were almost certainly lost as a direct result of his actions, for purely personal reasons that had nothing to do with SpaceX's commercial interests.
It's as serious a breach of trust as can possibly be imagined. Who could possibly trust a contract with a Musk-controlled company now?
Full Congressional investigation is in order. ASAP. Ukrainians died and US diplomatic personnel plus US citizens were at grave risk. wsj.com/world/ukraine-starli…
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Beyond shameful. And not even "America First": he is proving that deals with the U.S. will not be honored. No reason for anyone to negotiate with us or buy U.S. arms.
Trump: "We've given more money to Ukraine than almost anybody over the years, hundreds of billions of dollars. We've got nothing back other than high diesel. American taxpayers are tired of it."
The US hasn't provided aid to Ukraine since Trump took office. Instead, they SELL military equipment to NATO allies, who then transfer it to Ukraine.
And by the way, the US is currently withholding lifesaving air defense missiles that our allies have already paid for!
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DavidASuper retweeted
Trump: "We've given more money to Ukraine than almost anybody over the years, hundreds of billions of dollars. We've got nothing back other than high diesel. American taxpayers are tired of it."
The US hasn't provided aid to Ukraine since Trump took office. Instead, they SELL military equipment to NATO allies, who then transfer it to Ukraine.
And by the way, the US is currently withholding lifesaving air defense missiles that our allies have already paid for!
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DavidASuper retweeted
Pardon my language, but not really! It’s the simple truth, and that Europe is largely fine with watching courageous Ukraine suffer this horror on their behalf is an abomination of the soul.
‼️ Some brutal truth 🔽
“I want to see which European capital could withstand just one drone attack. They’ll run away, shit themselves — pardon my language — and surrender.”.”
— Garry Kasparov
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DavidASuper retweeted
To put this in laymen's terms, Musk and Trump are now hobbling Ukraine's ability to protect its civilian population from a type of Russian drone that functions more like a cruise missile. This is not the United States adopting a neutral position vis-a-vis the war. This is the United States facilitating Russian terror.
Ukraine's Starshield terminals still don't work properly, President Zelensky confirms, disabling Ukrainian interceptors used to shoot down Russian jet-powered drones that have been hitting civilian targets in recent weeks.
kyivindependent.com/planned-…
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DavidASuper retweeted
Donald Trump has just posted on his own social media platform. He says Zelenskyy does not want peace and never has, because Europe keeps giving him money. He says he made the deal with Russia on diesel fuel because Russia wants to bring global prices down. At the beginning of his post, he justifies his decision. At the end, he says Ukraine has lost land territory, seas, and oceans.
This statement marks the (public) beginning of the United States' shift toward Russia. In other words, it is the public beginning of the US transitioning into an ally of Russia. Until now, all the other statements, political decisions, and scandals have either taken place behind closed doors or been publicly denied as being beneficial to Russia.
From now on, we will see a clear, openly acknowledged move toward closer relations with Russia. Trump needs to win a third term. Putin needs to win the war. Trump needs to achieve his objective to protect himself legally from everything that would follow if he lost power. Putin needs the war to continue, and preferably to win it, to physically protect himself from the death that would await him if he lost or if a just peace were reached.
Trump will not relinquish power democratically. Anyone who believes otherwise is naive. His third term could come through himself, Don Jr., or someone else in his family. Putin cannot allow the war to end because he would meet the same fate as Gaddafi.
Both are desperate, and both are being obstructed by two entities: Ukraine and the European Union. For those who have forgotten, let me remind you that Trump used to lecture us for buying Russian gas. Today, he is asking us to buy Russian gas. Trump used to accuse us of not paying enough for our own war. Today, he criticizes us for giving Ukraine money. Putin is bothered by European assistance because Europe is the last bastion of Western civilization still defending Western values. Europe, Canada, and the rest of the Coalition of the Willing, minus the United States.
The midterm elections are on November 3. Everyone is expecting a Democratic tsunami. I expect the Democrats to win the House of Representatives and the Senate to end up evenly split. But that will not change US foreign policy overnight.
Years from now, history will remind us that, starting in 2024, the United States took its first steps toward supporting the aggressor. And those who read about it, after having read, watched, or digitally experienced the horrors of Bucha, Borodyanka, Mariupol, Chernihiv, Izium, and so on, will wonder how we could all have been such idiots, how we continued to believe in the "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave" when the evidence was right in front of us, screaming in our faces.
At this moment, the United States has provided no financial aid for more than two years. Access to Starlink and StarShield is restricted. Military intelligence is provided intermittently. The ballistic missile early warning system is NOT functioning. The US has postponed the sanctions under the Graham law. The US has signed a diesel fuel deal with Russia. If it walks like betrayal and quacks like betrayal, then it is betrayal.
The European Union has an adversary in the United States, one it will soon recognize as such. Soon, when Russia does something that would have been unimaginable back in 2022 or 2023, something that will shatter confidence in NATO, Article 5, and the entire North Atlantic security architecture. It may already be too late for some Eastern European countries.
Or, in an alternative scenario, this Europe, plagued by internal divisions amplified by hundreds of thousands of Russian bots and coordinated through social media campaigns with the help of American algorithms, will manage to stay united. United for Ukraine and for its own security. In this scenario, Europe will accelerate the development of alternatives to Starlink, the F-35, American space technology, and anti-ballistic missile interceptors, and will punish social media platforms as they deserve. And then things will be much better. Romania must remain alongside the core of the European Union and positively influence this acceleration.
Ukraine is not doing badly on the battlefield. For example, Kostyantynivka was supposed to have fallen into Russian hands back in May. Chances are it will not fall before 2027, which would make the Russian conquest of Donbas impossible, considering the situation up until the summer of 2026, when the US was STILL not openly acting as Russia's partner.
If Ukraine loses the war, it will be because of the United States and because of Europe's slowness and failure to make firm decisions. And Ukraine's surrender would mean hell unleashed upon Eastern Europe and the European Union project as a whole.
Still, let us not overlook the fact that, in Trump's eyes, Ukraine once had one or more oceans. And somehow lost them.
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DavidASuper retweeted
10/ In the short term I expect to see Starlink being dropped like a hot potato by governments around the world. Nobody will want to be in the same position as Ukraine, of imploring Musk to turn it back on while their civilians are being killed as a direct result of the outage.
Made with AI
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DavidASuper retweeted
What was Zelenskyy's misstep?
Criticizing our president who, by turning off Starshield, is actively helping Putin kill Ukrainian civilians as a strategy to pressure Zelenskyy to stop fighting the Russians because, allegedly, that will help lower diesel prices? That's not a misstep; that's leadership.
The world is getting tired of our friendly-advice lectures on how to delicately deal with crazy Uncle Trump.
And the pattern is clear. Those who push back on Trump's irrational ideas fare better in the long run than those who try to appease him. Xi figured that out. Carney figured that out. Machado tried the opposite, and it didn't work out too well for her.
zelenskyy has exhibited extraordinary restraint in his (public and private) diplomacy w trump ever since the white house blow up in april ‘25.
this week was a misstep. understandable given the strain he’s under and trump’s desire to rebuild relations with putin. less consequential given ukraine’s more limited reliance on the americans. but a misstep nonetheless…and one the europeans are now trying hard to remedy.
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When a pack of wolves is bearing down on you, it really makes no sense to say "I'm going to fend off that wolf on the right: he looks really mean."
NYT: "Maros Sefcovic, the trade commissioner of the 27-nation bloc, said that the understanding could lead to China’s halving the number of hybrid gasoline-electric cars that it sends to the European Union in the next four years."
This may seem like a victory, but the problem is a systemic one, and not sectoral. Because this agreement does not in any way address either China's demand imbalance or the overall role of the EU in absorbing that imbalance, it won't have much effect on overall EU manufacturing. All that will happen is a shift in the locus of net manufacturing imports from China, so that EU producers of hybrids will be better off, but at the expense of other EU manufacturers.
For historical reasons, trade discussions are usually held on a product-by-product basis, but while that may make sense in a world of broadly balanced trade, it makes no sense in a world of deep, persistent imbalances. China runs huge surpluses not because it produces too many hybrids but rather because of its deep consumption imbalance and the very low household income share of GDP.
As long as that happens, the only recourse for the EU, if it does not want to accept deindustrialization, is either to reduce its own household share of GDP (which would be politically disruptive as well as bad for the global economy) or to intervene in its external accounts in such a way that it reverses the competitive impact of China's low household share of GDP.
nytimes.com/2026/10/09/busin…
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DavidASuper retweeted
Another way to think about Trump announcement today: If he increased US diesel imports from Canada by 4%, he would gain as much fuel as from this Russia deal. But the Canadians are global super-villains, so who wants to buy from them when you could enrich Putin instead?
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Brilliant. And absolutely right. Ukrainians' continued suffering, such as that of all the people killed in Russia's attacks on civilian buses yesterday in Kramatorsk, are directly attributable to our cowardice, arrogance, and stupidity.
President Zelenskyy’s comment on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks that the war in Ukraine is at a "strategic stalemate" and that there are now "no prospects for a negotiated settlement":
"You cannot negotiate future economic projects with Russians on the one hand and, on the other, claim that we are in some kind of diplomatic stalemate. We are not in a diplomatic stalemate.
Shut down Russia’s entire economy. Shut Russia's mouth. Stop feeding them through your sales. Impose sanctions on their weapons.
Open Starlink for Ukraine. You opened it when responding to Iran, after all. Everything worked there. Israel completely controlled the skies over Iran. So when you need it to work, it works.
It costs them nothing to help Ukraine. And I said quite frankly: help us protect our skies and gain dominance there.
Then Putin will sit down at the negotiating table. Why? Because he will lose everything. In two or three months, he will lose everything.
And instead, we are waiting for the Chinese to develop an equivalent and hand it over to Russians.
This is not a stalemate - this is called a lack of will."
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DavidASuper retweeted
German FM Wadephul on the horrible consequences of Russian occupation:
It’s not as if, the moment the Russians arrive, the Ukrainian flag simply comes down and the Russian one goes up and life just carries on as normal. Instead, the Russians abduct children to Russia, simply taking them away from their rightful parents and commit rape, murder, torture, and killing; all of this happens in the Russian-occupied territories. That is the reality.
Russia abducts Ukrainian children.
Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian children clearly shows how the Russian regime views people in general: as things. Not as subjects with rights, but as objects and resources. Objects to be abducted, transported, hidden, "rewritten", and subordinated. Resources for demography, propaganda, loyalty, and military purposes.
‼️ For Russia, Ukrainian children are a valuable resource.
▪️The core line of this crime is forcible removal. According to the Children of War state website (24.02.2022-14.12.2025), at least 19,546 Ukrainian children have been deported and/or forcibly displaced. The same source records 2,231 missing children and 48,723 found.
◾️ In parallel, a second layer is launched - identity change. In occupied territories and in Russia, children are forced to accept Russian citizenship, demonstrate loyalty, and study under the Russian state curriculum which justifies the invasion and erases Ukrainian cultural belonging. Children are psychologically humiliated and physically punished for any manifestation of their true identity. This is not merely "education" but an instrument of erasing language, memory, symbols, and self-identification.
◾️ The third element is "re-education", indoctrination, and militarization. UN reports document the introduction of patriotic and military programs in Russian-occupied territories aimed at preparing children for service in Russian military structures. The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights has reported data on 165 camps where Ukrainian children are Russified and militarized - located in temporarily occupied territories, in Russia, Belarus, and even beyond the region.
◾️ The fourth dimension is use in the war as a "disposable resource" for risk, sabotage, criminalization, and blackmail. Teenagers are recruited via social media for arson, bombings, and planting explosives without being told the real risks. There are documented cases where minors were killed or injured while following FSB instructions to transport explosive devices, not realizing they were effectively being turned into suicide couriers. These cases show that for Russia, teenagers are not children, but expendable material for terror.
◾️ The fifth is physical and sexual violence. The UN documents violations against children in occupied regions, including arbitrary detention, torture, cruel treatment, and sexual violence. According to data cited from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, as of September 1, 2025, 376 cases of conflict-related sexual violence had been recorded; among the victims were 20 minors (19 girls and 1 boy). This is one of the darkest tools of occupation terror: to break, humiliate, and silence a child and their family.
Crimes against children are so grave and unacceptable that international justice began holding Russia’s highest leadership accountable precisely for them. On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for the war crime of unlawful deportation and unlawful transfer of children from occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation. ICC judges concluded there are sufficient grounds to believe these are not isolated incidents but an element of a deliberate policy in the context of an international armed conflict.
The issue of crimes against children is extremely "uncomfortable" for the Russian regime, which is why Russia expends enormous effort to whitewash them through a set of repetitive narratives: deportations are called "evacuation" and "rescue," not abduction; children from occupied territories are presented as "Russian children of Donbas" allegedly being saved from "Ukrainian shelling." Propaganda constantly airs sentimental stories about the "adoption of orphans," "sanatoriums," and "holiday camps" in Russia, where in reality children are Russified, indoctrinated, and militarized.
Ukraine is bringing children home, but these returns are a drop in the ocean and come at a superhuman cost.
As of December 10, 2025, the Ombudsman reported 1,902 children returned. But tens of thousands remain in Russian captivity - a captivity that breaks both lives and souls.
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My latest on the (il)legality of the Administration's taxpayer-funded advertisements glorifying President Trump. Very handy to have an Attorney General who ignores even blatant lawlessness.
Balkinization: The Administration’s Hagiographic Advertisements share.google/xUAgpqSLTRItWQw…
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DavidASuper retweeted
I advise never engaging with the posters who blame Zelensky for the ongoing war. They are either bots, trolls or lack the mental capacity to understand that Russia is the aggressor.
Whichever, engagement is a waste of time and pixels.
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My latest on the Administration's openly lawless impoundments of appropriated funds.
Balkinization: More Fiscal Mismanagement share.google/d88FnwtHFhUpb0r…
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This argument is completely absurd. The prohibition on spending taxpayer dollars on propaganda or personal glorification in secs. 715 and 718 of Division E of P.K. 119-75 apply to any funds provided under any law, not just appropriations acts.
The rider prohibiting government funded propaganda doesn't apply to funding done outside the normal appropriations process, admin is arguing
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