Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain

“It was a sickening spectacle: the man who tried to upend democracy bullying the man who is fighting for democracy.

– Maureen Dowd, “Trump is Rootin’ for Putin,” The New York Times, March 2, 2025.)

“Trump barked at Zelensky: You’ve got to be more thankful because…you don’t have the cards. With us, you have the cards, but without us, you don’t have any cards. Pretty rich for a draft dodger to lecture a man whose name has become synonymous with wartime bravery.”

–Dowd, March 2, 2025.

In the summer of 1938, it was increasingly obvious to the international community that the German invasion of Czechoslovakia was being planned in Berlin. The Czechs had an alliance with the Soviet Union, but that wasn’t expected to save them. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain knew that, if France decided to defend Czechoslovakia, he would have to join in. Britain was in no position to wage a general European war, so Chamberlain boarded a plane for the first time in his life and flew to Munich to placate Adolf Hitler.

Chamberlain’s concessions were insufficient for the Fuehrer, so he made a second trip only to find greater German demands. Additional meetings were held, as Hitler and his cohorts launched violent tirades against the Czechs. Hitler then held a public rally at which, according to historian William Shirer, Hitler was “shouting and shrieking in the worst state of excitement I’ve ever seen him in…with a fanatical fire in his eyes.”

I recalled these odious events while watching the video of the March 1 meeting in the Oval Office in which a vile President Donald Trump and an even more vile J.D. Vance abused and tormented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with their shouts and threats. There is no question that Trump is a dangerously disordered president........

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