'Fiery Emperor Nero': French senator denounces Trump and his 'ketamine-fueled jester'

Elon Musk listens to U.S. President Donald Trump speak in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

David Badash

THE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

March 07, 2025

A speech attacking President Donald Trump and Elon Musk by French Senator Claude Malhuret is going viral.

It comes as the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, in a prime-time address Wednesday urged the citizens of France to discuss extending their nuclear umbrella to Ukraine in the face of what clearly is President Donald Trump’s decision to align with Vladimir Putin and Russia over Ukraine.

Senator Malhuret, who is also a physician and an attorney, is being heralded here in America.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser heralded Senator Malhuret’s remarks.

“Powerful speech about Trump’s betrayal of the democratic world,” she wrote. “My question watching this — where is the American version? Why hasn’t US’s own opposition to Trump been able to speak out with such clarity and force? Tempus fugit.”

MSNBC’s Michael Steele, the former RNC Chairman, quoted this from Malhuret’s remarks: “Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers and a buffoon on ketamine tasked with purging the civil service.”

“Regardless the language, the Truth remains the same,” Steele commented. “THIS is worth your time.”

Former Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Anton Gerashchenko, pointed to this quote from the speech:

“The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic States, Georgia and Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to Yalta, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin.”

“Perfectly expressed,” declared The New European, which published the text in English and called it “a powerful speech setting out how the continent must deal with the twin threats from America and Russia.”

The New European reports the speech included these lines:

“The king of the deal is showing what the art of the deal is all about. He thinks he will intimidate China by lying down before Putin, but Xi Jinping, faced with such a shipwreck, is probably accelerating preparations for the invasion of Taiwan.”

“Never in history has a president of the United States capitulated to the enemy,” and added, “in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in four years of his last presidency. We were at war with a dictator, now we are fighting a dictator backed by a traitor.”


Speaking of Trump, he said, “in the Oval Office, the military service shirker was giving war hero Zelensky lessons in morality and strategy before dismissing him like a groom, ordering him to submit or resign.”

“Our parents defeated fascism and communism at great cost,” Malhuret said. “The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century. Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe.”

The speech is of course in French, but there are subtitles.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Announced US layoffs have 'jumped to levels not seen since the last two recessions': report

Elon Musk in April 2022 (Creative Commons)


Brad Reed
Raw Story

March 06, 2025

Reuters is reporting that the number of announced layoffs in the United States has "jumped to levels not seen since the last two recessions."

Citing data from global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, Reuters brings word that announced job cuts totaled 172,017 in February, which is an increase of 245 percent over the previous month and the highest total for a February since the United States was in the middle of the Great Recession.

Cuts to government workers accounted for more than 63,000 layoffs as Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has been ruthlessly hacking away at the federal workforce.

What's more, it seems likely that the massive scope of layoffs is likely to have a cascading effect on the broader economy.

"When mass layoffs occur, it often leaves remaining staff feeling uneasy and uncertain," said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "The likelihood that many more workers leave voluntarily is high."

Trump and Musk have thrown the U.S. economy into a period of high uncertainty as they have not only slashed the federal workforce but have also implemented high tariffs on foreign goods from America's two largest trading partners.

'Betrayal': Trump’s escalating Russian alignment condemned by critics — praised by Kremlin

Ronald Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019, Presidential Press and Information Office


David Badash

THE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

March 06, 2025


In the week since Donald Trump and JD Vance launched a two-on-one televised attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the American president, his administration, and his allies have escalated actions that undermine—and even endanger—Ukraine and its people on multiple fronts, leading critics to denounced President Trump’s “betrayal.”

Trump and his administration reportedly will be targeting Ukrainian refugees in the U.S., and have already crippled a key military tool vital to Ukraine’s defense, halted weapons shipments, and ordered a top Pentagon agency to suspend operations and planning against Russia’s cyber offensives. Trump’s close allies reportedly are looking to back Zelenskyy’s political opponents in Ukraine. Critics—and even Russian state propagandists—say these moves send an unmistakable signal to the world: the United States has “switched sides” in Vladimir Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine.

“The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently declared, as MSNBC reported Tuesday. “This largely aligns with our vision.”

President Trump “was asked for his reaction after the Kremlin said the White House was largely aligned with Moscow. He didn’t answer — but he didn’t have to,” observed MSNBC’s Steve Benen.

Reuters is reporting that the Trump administration will move to revoke the legal protected status of 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion to come to the United States. These refugees, under a Biden administration program, were required to pay fees, be fully vetted, and have proof of a sponsor and financial means.

“The move, expected as soon as April, would be a stunning reversal of the welcome Ukrainians received under President Joe Biden’s administration,” according to Reuters, which noted that at least some could be put on a fast track to deportation.

While Reuters reports its sources say the plan was in place before President Donald Trump’s and Vice President. JD Vance’s Oval Office blowup, it also comes amid moves that appear to put the Trump administration on the side of Russia and President Vladimir Putin.

Earlier this week, President Trump ordered a suspension of critical intelligence sharing with Ukraine, a move that is “expected to cripple Kyiv’s ability to target Russian forces,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Trump administration also “suspended weapons shipments to Ukraine earlier this week,” after the “contentious Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,” the Journal reported. Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, “said Trump, after that meeting, had also ‘asked for a pause’ of intelligence sharing.”

For years, the CIA and other U.S. Intelligence agencies “have forged deep ties with Ukrainian counterparts,” according to the Journal. Now, that has changed.

“We have taken a step back and are pausing and reviewing all aspects of this relationship,” Trump National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told reporters Wednesday.

Trump’s decision to halt intelligence sharing “will cost civilian lives almost immediately, dismayed Ukrainians said Thursday,” NBC News reported. The President’s decision also came as European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “convened a summit in Brussels as they attempt to cope with an upended landscape in which the Trump administration appears to be treating them with hostility while seemingly warming to the Kremlin.”

In another escalation against Ukraine and an apparent move toward Russia, on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News that the war in Ukraine is “a proxy war between nuclear powers – the United States, helping Ukraine, and Russia – and it needs to come to an end.”

Reuters reported that the Kremlin “said on Thursday that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s view that the Ukraine conflict is a proxy war between the United States and Russia is in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s own assessment.”

On Thursday, Politico Europe exclusively reported that “senior members of Donald Trump’s entourage have held secret discussions with some of Kyiv’s top political opponents to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as Washington aligns with Moscow in seeking to lever the Ukrainian president out of his job.”

“The discussions centered on whether Ukraine could hold quick presidential elections. These are being delayed in line with the country’s constitution because Ukraine remains under martial law. Critics of holding elections say they could be chaotic and play into Russia’s hands, with so many potential voters serving on the front lines or living abroad as refugees.”

Politico notes that while the Trump administration denies interfering in Ukraine’s domestic politics, “the behavior of Trump and his officials suggests quite the opposite. Trump has accused Zelenskyy of being a ‘dictator without elections,’ and hinted he would not be ‘around very long’ if he didn’t do a deal with Russia. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has falsely accused Kyiv of canceling the election.”

University of Copenhagen award-winning professor of political science, Marlene Wind, blasted the news.

“This is just appalling. Is Trump secretly planning a coup in Kyiv by replacing @ZelenskyyUa with a pro-Russian politician?” she asked.

Bartłomiej Gajos, a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union, asked: “Is it official US policy to seek regime change in Ukraine? That would be my question to the administration if I were a journalist.”

Meanwhile, critics are also condemning Secretary Rubio’s remarks—with some calling them Russian talking points. And President Trump’s decision to target the nearly quarter-million Ukrainian refugees in the U.S. is also being denounced.

Critics Sound the Alarm

“This is nasty, heartless, un-American and dangerous,” declared veteran and veterans’ activist Paul Rieckhoff. “It’s sending innocent civilians back into a war zone to die. These are women and children and seniors. The latest move to deepen Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine. And American values. He continues to drive the knife deeper into the back of Ukraine. And NATO. Putin is celebrating. And the Statue of Liberty is weeping. Congress must exhaust every option to block this. I’d expect Canada or another good nation to step up to accept these Ukrainians. As America continues to fail and fall. And become more isolated and less safe.”

“Hold on,” said The Wall Street Journal’s chief foreign affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimo, “didn’t President Trump just say that half of Ukraine is flattened and that his main motivation is care for innocent Ukrainian lives?”

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser remarked, “How to see this as anything other than a betrayal of people who fled for their lives? The US welcomed them… and now we’re throwing them out, and switching sides in Putin’s war.”

Last week, Glasser wrote: “the United States of America has switched sides in the war between Russia and Ukraine. The country is no longer on the side of Ukraine.”

Late Thursday morning Glasser posted video of a French lawmaker, calling it a “Powerful speech about Trump’s betrayal of the democratic world.”

“My question watching this — where is the American version?” she asked. “Why hasn’t US’s own opposition to Trump been able to speak out with such clarity and force? Tempus fugit.”

Jesuit priest James Martin, a New York Times best-selling author, and editor-at-large of America magazine, responding to the news Ukrainian refugees may lose protections and be deported, wrote simply: “‘I was a stranger and you did not welcome me’ (Mt 25).”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

'Disgraceful': Trump says MSNBC hosts critical of him should be 'forced to resign'

Matthew Chapman
March 6, 2025 

RAW STORY




President Donald Trump demanded that MSNBC hosts Nicolle Wallace and Rachel Maddow be "forced to resign" in an Oval Office rant to reporters Thursday.

Trump's wrath stems from the fact that both hosts criticized the moment at his address to Congress this week, during which he inducted a 13-year-old cancer patient as an honorary Secret Service agent.

“For the record – and this is disgusting – the president made a spectacle out of praising a young man who’s thus far survived pediatric cancer – as if the president had something to do with that,” Maddow said of the incident.

Wallace, meanwhile, highlighted the disconnect of Trump spotlighting law enforcement when he incited the Jan. 6 attack.

“I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer, but I hope he never has to defend the United States capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters and if he does, I hope he isn’t one of the six who loses his life to suicide,” she said. “And I hope he isn’t one that has to testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then lived to see Donald Trump pardon those people.”

The comments triggered a stream of outrage in right-wing media — and Trump has leapt on it himself.

"Frankly, what Nicolle Wallace said, I've never been a fan of hers," said Trump. "But she's not very talented. But I'll tell you, what she said the other day about that young man is disgraceful. She should be forced to resign. And Rachel Maddow, she should be forced to resign. Nobody watches her anyway, I don't know if, it's not possible that they pay her as much money as I hear. But certainly she's lost all credibility. Both of them. What they said the other day, they should be forced to resign, about that young person."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

'Shadowy, unelected figures': Analyst says DOGE is the very thing 'it claims to fear most'

Matthew Chapman
March 6, 2025 
RAW STORY

Tech billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency task force have the goal not just of rooting out waste in government, but of combating the supposed "deep state" that President Donald Trump has long blamed for ruining his vision for America


But Musk should look no further than a mirror to see DOGE's sworn enemy, Brian Barrett wrote in a scathing analysis for Wired.

"It seems fair to ask: If a bunch of shadowy, unelected figures, many with shared business interests and connections, took over government functions at the highest levels and directly contravened the will of Congress, what might you call that?" Barrett wrote. "How about … DOGE?"

"Secretive? The so-called Department of Government Efficiency has never provided an org chart, did not have a publicly documented leader until last week, and refused to reveal the identities of its young staffers in early internal meetings. Check," he continued. "Unelected? Self-evidently so. Check."

Meanwhile, he continued, Musk is a walking poster child for conflicts of interest.

"DOGE is inarguably the Elon Musk extended universe. Current and former employees from X, SpaceX, the Boring Company, and Tesla currently control or are deeply embedded in countless government agencies, including the ones they’re ostensibly regulated by," said Barrett.

These conflicts have already caused a firestorm of controversy, from Musk's move to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while planning to add financial products to his X platform, to his potential role in giving SpaceX the contract to rebuild the nation's air traffic control systems.

DOGE also faces questions about whether it is serving its basic mission, with the group being forced to delete its so-called "wall of receipts" of canceled wasteful contracts after reporters dug and realized the math didn't add up.


All of this taken together, Barrett noted, means "DOGE is the thing it claims to fear the most."

"Elon Musk is the problem he purportedly wants to solve," wrote Barrett.

Furthermore, he added, "The impacts of DOGE’s cuts are increasingly impossible to ignore, or to confuse with any greater good. Whether DOGE loses control will depend, though, on if anyone in power can see that it’s the very thing they’ve warned against. Or if they can bring themselves to care."

‘We will be relentless’: Canadian leader unloads on Trump despite tariff pause

Erik De La Garza
March 6, 2025 

RAW STORY


FILE PHOTO: Ontario Premier Doug Ford, wearing a "Canada is not for sale" hat, speaks to journalists at a provincial and territorial leaders meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Blair Gable/File Photo

Ontario Premier Doug Ford unloaded on Donald Trump and the ongoing trade war he unleashed on Canada in an interview Thursday, where he promised to barrel forward with 25% electricity tariffs on Americans in a matter of days despite the president’s one-month pause on Canadian and Mexican tariffs.

“Isn’t this a shame?” Ford said. “It’s an absolute mess.”

Ford made the comments during an appearance on Fox News Business moments after Trump announced the tariff pause. But it was too late for Ford, who confirmed that 25% tariffs would be imposed on electricity coming from Ontario to homes and businesses in Michigan, New York and Minnesota come Monday.

“Three great governors – I get already well with them – great people and I apologize to the American people,” he said. “There’s one person to be blamed and that’s President Trump.”


The Canadian leader continued to rip into Trump’s dismantling of the trade relationship between what he described as the United States’ “closest friends” and “closest allies in the entire world.”

“He’s creating chaos,” Ford said. “He ran on a mandate to lower costs, lower inflation, create more jobs – it’s the total opposite. People are going to be losing their jobs in the U.S. and in Canada and inflation is happening already.”

He added: “The market is going downhill quicker than the American bobsled team and it’s unacceptable.”

Ford later took to his X social media account to continue his scathing rebuke of Trump's tariff policy – and make clear his own position.

“The only thing that’s certain today is more uncertainty,” he wrote. “A pause on some tariffs means nothing. Until President Trump removes the threat of tariffs for good, we will be relentless.”

Watch the clip below or at this link:

'Freaked out' Trump backed off tariff plan after seeing markets tank: MSNBC analyst

Jennifer Bowers Bahney
March 6, 2025 
RAW STORY

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump makes an announcement about an investment from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 3, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

President Donald Trump is less concerned about how the American people are faring from his back-and-forth on tariffs than he is on how the stock market is reacting, according to an MSNBC political analyst.

During a Thursday broadcast that aired shortly after Trump reversed course on Mexico tariffs, anchor Chris Jansing asked, "Is there any consideration at all for the people whose lives, livelihoods, jobs, depend on all of this?"

"That seems to be less a consideration than what the markets are doing," answered analyst Elise Jordan, who worked in the George W. Bush White House. "And you had heard so many of Donald Trump's associates and business leaders say that when the markets start to go down, Donald Trump is going to get freaked out and he's going to reverse course. And we're seeing that happen a bit."

Trump announced on social media Thursday morning that he was pausing tariffs on Mexico for one month "as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum."

According to The New York Times, "Uncertainty stemming from the Trump administration’s mixed messages on tariffs on the country’s biggest trading partners is weighing on Wall Street," with stock indices continuing to plummet even after Trump's announcement on Mexico.

Jordan claimed Trump's chaotic method of imposing then rescinding tariffs "is just a disgusting exercise in power at the end of the day, to keep everyone around the world on the edge of their seats and living in this uncertainty."

She continued, "It's about more than just, you know, the stock market dropping. It's about people who are living paycheck to paycheck and wondering if they're going to still have a job to pay their rent, and if they're going to have food for their children. And, so, when someone like Donald Trump has ultimate power, we have seen he likes to have this cat and mouse, bait and switch."

Watch the video below or at this link.

'Bonkers': Hegseth ridiculed as Enola Gay photos swept up in DEI purge over word 'gay'

Daniel Hampton
March 6, 2025 
RAW STORY

TINIAN ISLAND, MARIANA ISLANDS - CIRCA SEPTEMBER 30, 1945: Photo by James E. Weichers of the Enola Gay, US Air Force B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6th, 1945. (Photo credit: Dan Thornberg / Shutterstock)


Critics unloaded on new Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth after a new report Thursday night that references to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient and even the Enola Gay — the plane that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan — were among tens of thousands of materials designated for deletion by the Department of Defense.

A database obtained by The Associated Press flagged the photos and online posts set to be axed. One official told AP as many as 100,000 images or posts could get swept up in Trump's purge of content it deems related diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI initiatives.

Hegseth gave the military a Wednesday deadline to strip content that highlights diversity initiatives.

But the report noted the order includes the word "gay" — and in some cases materials appeared to be marked for deletion because they included the word, such as the B-29 plane Enola Gay, which dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

The report drew widespread condemnation from social media critics.

"What a piece of s--- you are @SecDef," chided Fred Wellman, a U.S. Army combat veteran and host of the "On Democracy" podcast.

He added: "Enola Gay. These f---ers are bigots and f---ing idiots too."

"Apparently image of 'Enola Gay' bomber was removed because it has the word 'gay' in it. Ya can’t make this stuff up," remarked Josh Kraushaar, editor in chief at Jewish Insider.


Chris Meagher, former spokesman of the Pentagon, called the reporting "bonkers."

"It’s led to, among thousands of others, an image of the B-29 aircraft Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War II, being flagged because the file included the word 'gay,'" he said.

"Including images of the Enola Gay and its flight crew. Because of the word 'Gay.' Complete lunacy and literally an attempt to whitewash history," wrote Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson.

"This isn’t a joke. They literally flagged it because of 'DEI,'" wrote Michael Collier of the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

'Stunning reversal': Trump reportedly plans new blow to Ukrainians fleeing Russian bombing

Tom Boggioni
March 6, 2025 
RAW STORY




Donald Trump's war with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to be entering a new stage according to a report from Reuters.

The U.S. president has been battling with the leader of the war-torn nation which was illegally invaded by Russia three years ago, and that infighting culminated in an explosive televised press availability last Friday where Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance harangued and belittled Zelensky and then had him escorted out of the White House.

On Thursday morning, Reuters reported that Trump is now planning to yank temporary legal status granted to approximately 240,000 Ukrainians, putting them on a "fast-track" to deportation, according to three government sources

The report notes, "The move, expected as soon as April, would be a stunning reversal of the welcome Ukrainians received under President Joe Biden's administration."

Earlier this week, the Trump administration suspended weapons shipments to the embattled nation and has also stopped sharing much-needed intelligence on Russian operations as Trump sidles even closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

You can read more here from Reuters.

‘Under my wing’: mums and daughters serving together in Ukraine


By  AFP
March 2, 2025


Ukrainian servicewomen Veronika and her mother, Natalia, serve in the 100th mechanized brigade - Copyright AFP Genya SAVILOV

Léa DAUPLE and Kseniia TOMCHYK

As snow falls in a park in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, Natalia fixes Veronika’s military hood. They are both Ukrainian soldiers, but a mother is always a mother.

Natalia, 53, gave up her job as a clothing designer and signed up at the beginning of Russia’s invasion three years ago on February 24, 2022.

Her daughter Veronika, 26, decided to join her just a few days later.

“As a mother, of course I was worried,” Natalia told AFP.

But she said she later thought it would be better to stick together.

“Whatever happens you will be near me, under my wing. I will protect you with my own body if I have to,” Natalia said to her daughter.

“If you were not here, I wouldn’t be able to do anything,” she said.

Veronika said her mother “helped me to not be afraid”.

“Children try to be like their parents,” she said, smiling.

Both women serve in the 100th brigade in administrative roles.

They are among the 68,000 women listed as serving in the Ukrainian army in 2024 — a sharp increase from 2014, according to defence ministry figures.

– A kind of family life –

Joining the army is far from an obvious choice as tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the war.

The overwhelming majority of women serving are not involved in the fighting. Women in Ukraine were forbidden from combat roles until 2018.

In this largely masculine environment, where some women experience sexist attitudes and sexual harassment, Natalia and Veronika, the ex-wife and daughter of a soldier, say they are “pampered”.

When asked about any negative experiences, Natalia gets a knowing look from her daughter when she says no.

At the start of the war, “my mum had an admirer”, Veronika said.

The feeling was not mutual, and Natalia had to put an end to the situation because “words were not enough” to ward him off, her daughter said.

The two women have recreated a kind of family life in the apartment they share near the front.

In the mornings, they get ready to the sound of music. In the evenings, they do sport.

Every time a bomb falls, Veronika calls her mum to make sure she’s still alive.

They have minor arguments which quickly blow over — usually about household issues.

Natalia says she feels happy.

“My child is here. This is my home. Where would I want to go?” she said.

– ‘Peaceful life’ –

Even though they both serve in the Khartia brigade, Olga and Maria, another duo, say they only manage to see each other once a week for a hug.

At a recent meeting, Olga’s phone rang after an hour — quickly followed by Maria’s. They had to go back to work.

But just knowing that “my mother is close” is reassuring for Maria, 21, who has a tattoo reading “Girl Power” on her hip.

She joined officer school in 2020.

Three years later, her mother, Olga, 48, a nurse, received an offer to join the army.

“If we serve, let’s do it together,” her daughter said, Olga remembered.

They are based in Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, where Olga works in a mobile dental clinic for soldiers and Maria is an officer in an administrative role.

The father, Petro, is a retired firefighter.

The 60-year-old sometimes travels to them to have a pizza together, but he lives far away from the front.

The family were forced to flee their hometown in the east of the country in 2022. They said their home is now occupied by Russian soldiers.

Petro said he would like to join too, but Maria told him he is too old.

She told him she needed him to look after the house, send clothes and water a beloved plant named Cleopatra.

Maria said she wanted “a peaceful life” for her mother in which her daily routine could consist of “making a cup of tea calmly at home or reading a book instead of being in uniform”.