November 28, 2025

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Kim Barker & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: “President Volodymyr Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, resigned on Friday in the highest-level political realignment in Ukraine since Russia’s all-out invasion nearly four years ago. The departure of Mr. Yermak, who had headed Ukraine’s negotiating team in peace talks with the Trump administration, put in doubt the future of the latest round of diplomatic efforts by the United States, Ukraine and European nations to end the war. It also cost Mr. Zelensky a longtime close ally who had been a behind-the-scenes operator, a political enforcer and, as Ukraine’s fortunes in the war slumped, a lightning rod for criticism over much of what had gone wrong, including allegations of theft from state companies. Mr. Yermak stepped down amid a spiraling, $100 million embezzlement scandal that has already led to the dismissal of two cabinet ministers and even threatened to topple Mr. Zelensky’s entire cabinet.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Whatever corruption Yermak was involved in, I imagine it pales in comparison to Donald Trump's grifts. Ukraine has an unfortunate history of corruption; we supposedly do not. 

More evidence of the necessity for the six members of Congress to remind the military not to follow unlawful orders:   

Pete Hegseth Is a War Criminal. Alex Horton & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: Before the U.S. military struck the first boat suspected of carrying drugs, “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive.... 'The order was to kill everybody,' [a source] said.... [After they hit the vessel, ] for minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar ... said. The two men were blown apart in the water. Hegseth’s order ... adds another dimension to the campaign against suspected drug traffickers. 

“Some current and former U.S. officials and law-of-war experts have said that the Pentagon’s lethal campaign — which has killed more than 80 people to date — is unlawful and may expose those most directly involved to future prosecution. The alleged traffickers pose no imminent threat of attack against the United States and are not, as the Trump administration has tried to argue, in an 'armed conflict' with the U.S., these officials and experts say. Because there is no legitimate war between the two sides, killing any of the men in the boats 'amounts to murder,' said Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised Special Operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign. Even if the U.S. were at war with the traffickers, an order to kill all the boat’s occupants if they were no longer able to fight 'would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime,' said Huntley, now director of the national security law program at Georgetown Law.” Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Mission Fail. Jenny Gathright, et al., of the Washington Post: “National Guard troops patrolling in D.C. will be paired with local law enforcement personnel, at least temporarily, in the wake of the Wednesday attack that killed one troop and critically injured another, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post and two D.C. police officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning that is still in progress.... Trump administration officials have credited the troops for helping reduce crime in the city — in part, they argued, because the troops’ presence at Metro stations and on National Park Service lands frees up law enforcement to police other areas of the city. Diverting local police to accompany Guard members would do essentially the opposite by siphoning them from other tasks in D.C. neighborhoods.” 

Josh Boak of the AP: “... Donald Trump says he wants to 'permanently pause migration' from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the United States by revoking their legal status. He is blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages as part of 'social dysfunction' in America and demanding 'REVERSE MIGRATION.'... The president said on Truth Social that 'most' foreign-born U.S. residents 'are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels' as he blamed them for crime across the country that is predominantly committed by U.S. citizens.... Trump’s threat to stop immigration would be a serious blow to a nation that has long defined itself as welcoming immigrants.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The headline for this story is now, “Trump says he wants to ‘permanently pause’ migration to the US from poorer countries.” It was, “Trump vows to ‘permanently pause’ migration from poor nations in anti-immigrant social media screed.” I guess calling a screed a screed does not meet the AP's journalistic standards.

Jeanna Smilek, et al., of the New York Times: “When [the Trump/Putin plan to carve up Ukraine] surfaced, [European officials] realized that Europe had been cut out of the Trump administration’s efforts to end the continent’s biggest land war since World War II.... This account of how Mr. Trump sidelined Europe in discussions about its own backyard, based on interviews with 16 officials with knowledge of the diplomatic wrangling, paints a picture of a continent squeezed between competing powers, its leaders grasping for influence in a world their nations once dominated.... In the days since the plan was leaked, European leaders ... have worked frantically to ... nudge Mr. Trump’s administration toward a position that they considered more acceptable.... That huge diplomatic effort, mounted across major European countries and institutions, meant that by Sunday evening, Europe’s leaders had managed to forestall some of what they saw as the worst excesses of the Trump plan for Ukraine.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I remain baffled as to why European leaders let Trump get in the middle of this in the first place. Why are they trying to "nudge" Trump now to a "more acceptable" position? The "more acceptable" position to nudge him to is off the stage and out of sight.  

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Michael Luciano of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump’s spiral into a vicious – and malicious – mental decline continued apace on Thanksgiving, capping off an especially erratic month in which he somehow managed to be even less 'presidential' than before. Trump, 79, has displayed increasingly antisocial behavior. This month, he called a reporter 'piggy' to her face. Last week, he claimed that six Democratic lawmakers who urged soldiers to 'refuse illegal orders' had committed sedition. For good measure, the dotard-in-chief reposted a post stating, 'HANG THEM.' On Wednesday, the president ranted about 'Somalians' after an Afghan national ... was arrested in connection with the shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members in Washington, D.C, one of whom has died. When asked during a Thanksgiving press conference at Mar-a-Lago if he would attend the funeral, Trump responded by bragging, 'I won West Virginia by one of the biggest margins of any president anywhere.' Yeah, that’s totally normal stuff. In the same presser, he erupted at another female reporter who questioned him about his dubious claim that [Rahmanullah] Lakanwal was an 'unvetted' refugee..., Trump told the reporter, 'You’re a stupid person.'” Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is a report I'd like to see on the front page of the NYT and other major U.S. newspapers, instead of stuff like this NYT report that gingerly poses the possibility that Trump -- like every being on earth -- is getting older. ~~

~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump railed against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday, describing him as 'seriously retarded' in a Thanksgiving message posted to Truth Social. 'A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World, for being “Politically Correct,” and just plain STUPID, when it comes to Immigration,' wrote Trump in his message[.]” ~~~

~~~ David Gilmour of Mediaite: “Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) challenged ... Donald Trump to release the results of his recent MRI as he hit back at the president’s late-night anti-immigration tirade during which he branded the Democrat 'seriously retarded.' Walz, quote-posting a screenshot of the Trump Truth Social post, told the president: 'Release the MRI results.'”

Luke Barr & Ivan Pereira of ABC News: "... Donald Trump said Thursday evening that U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, one of the two West Virginia National members wounded in a 'targeted shooting' near the White House on Wednesday, has died.... The other wounded National Guard member, Andrew Wolfe, 24, was in critical condition." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “After authorities identified the suspect [in the National Guard shootings] as an Afghan refugee, members of the Trump administration and other Republicans reacted furiously. They cited it as evidence of what they had been warning about immigration, condemned the Biden administration’s refugee policies and said it justified a further crackdown on immigration that the president said was coming. Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, announced on Thursday that in the wake of the attack, he was implementing new policy guidance on vetting prospective immigrants from 19 high-risk countries using 'country-specific factors as significant negative factors.' The change in guidance had been under consideration before the shooting. In his statement, Mr. Edlow blamed the Biden administration for  'dismantling basic vetting and screening standards, prioritizing the rapid resettlement of aliens from high-risk countries over the safety of American citizens.' The fierce rhetoric was echoed across the administration....

“When a reporter pointed out that, according to officials, the suspect had worked with the C.I.A. and therefore had been vetted, Mr. Trump said, 'He went cuckoo, I mean, he went nuts.' Asked whether he was blaming all Afghans for the crime of one man, Mr. Trump said, 'No, but there’s a lot of problems with Afghans.' Echoing largely unfounded claims that he has made about immigrants from other countries, he said that 'many of these people are criminals, many of these people are people that shouldn’t be here.'” A related NBC News story is here.

     ~~~ Marie: What Trump is claiming, whether he knows it or not, is that Lakanwal shot the Guard because he developed a mental disorder -- "he went cuckoo..., he went nuts" -- not because he was a terrorist. So, if that's the case, how is it Biden's fault that screeners during his administration did not catch the terrorist threat Lakanwal posed?  

~~~ Ted Hesson, et al., of Reuters: "The Trump administration on Thursday blamed Biden-era vetting failures for the admission of an Afghan immigrant suspected of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., but the alleged gunman was granted asylum this year under ... Donald Trump, according to a U.S. government file seen by Reuters.... FBI Director Kash Patel and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, both Trump appointees, said during a press conference on Thursday that the Biden administration had failed to conduct adequate background checks or vetting on [Rahmanullah] Lakanwal before allowing him to enter the U.S. in 2021. Neither official provided any evidence to support their assertion. Patel said Lakanwal, who had worked with U.S. government forces during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, was improperly allowed to enter the U.S. because 'the prior administration made the decision to allow thousands of people into this country without doing a single piece of background checking or vetting.'... 

"The government file on Lakanwal said he had been vetted by the U.S. because of his work with U.S. government partners during the war in Afghanistan, and no potentially disqualifying information had been found.... The incident plays directly into Trump’s narrative on immigration.... In a video message posted by the White House on Wednesday, Trump called Lakanwal an 'animal' and the shootings 'an act of terror.' Trump called for a 're-examination' of all Afghan nationals who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration. All immigration applications by Afghan nationals were suspended by the Trump administration on Wednesday night." (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~ Andrew Soldender of Axios: "Republicans are dramatically ramping up their anti-immigration rhetoric after the shooting of two National Guard members in D.C. by a suspect who is an Afghan national, with some calling to end Muslim immigration entirely and 'deport every single Islamist.'... The Trump administration is already taking steps in that direction by suspending all immigration applications from Afghan nationals.... 'We must IMMEDIATELY BAN all ISLAM immigrants and DEPORT every single Islamist who is living among us just waiting to attack,' Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said Wednesday in a post on X. The sentiment was similar among House members, with Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) writing: 'Deport them all. Now.'" 

~~~ Hamed Aleaziz & Minho Kim  of the New York Times: “Shawn VanDiver, the president of #AfghanEvac, an advocacy group for Afghan nationals brought to the United States, said in an interview that the Trump administration was 'capitalizing' on the shooting to punish the members of the Afghan community 'who fought beside U.S. troops' against the Taliban. Mr. VanDiver called the review of approved asylum petitions 'a political stunt.' He said that the Homeland Security Department was seeking to absolve itself after the shooting, noting that the department had diverted resources away from combating terrorism and toward immigration enforcement.” 

Katherine Doyle of NBC News: “... Donald Trump suggested Thursday night that the U.S. could 'very soon' begin targeting alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers on land, expanding operations that have so far focused on the Caribbean Sea. In Thanksgiving remarks to U.S. troops around the world, Trump thanked the Air Force’s 7th Bomb Wing for their work to 'deter Venezuelan drug traffickers' and said 'it’s about 85% stopped by sea … and we’ll be starting to stop them by land.... Also, the land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon,' the president added, speaking from his Mar-a-Lago estate.”

Digby republishes an X thread by Norwegian journalist Їne Back Їversen, which highlights Steve Witkoff's and Donald Trump's ties to shady Russians. Very much worth a read. Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: The only thing I'd quibble with: Iversen writes that "Witkoff is of russian descent." Actually, he's of Russian Jewish descent, and that makes a big difference. Fortunately for Witkoff, the promise of millions & millions of rubles allowed him to get over any (quite natural) dislike of Russian oligarchs & Kremlin operatives. The notion that Russia has not compromised Trump & Witkoff is more ridiculous than the assertion that they are Russian assets. (Also linked yesterday.)

    ~~~ Amy Lucia Lopez Belloza. She really looks like a danger to society, doesn't she? No wonder ICE defied a judge's order to deport her. She may have lived near me, so thanks to ICE this ruffian won't be terrorizing me anymore. ~~~

~~~ Laura Romero of ABC News: "A 19-year-old college student who was on her way to surprise her family for Thanksgiving break was detained at a Boston airport and later deported despite a federal judge's order blocking her removal, according to her attorney. Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, who entered the U.S. from Honduras when she was 8 years old, was about to board her flight to Texas last Friday to visit her parents and siblings when airport authorities told her to step aside, her attorney Todd Pomerleau told ABC News.... Hours after her detainment, court documents obtained by ABC News show that a federal judge ordered the government not to remove the 19-year-old from the U.S. and not to transfer her outside of Massachusetts. But according to Pomerleau, Lopez Belloza was transferred that evening to Texas and deported to Honduras the next day."

Katherine Doyle of NBC News: “A federal judge is pressing the Justice Department to explain how it will protect the identities of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims after lawyers said that dozens of their names appeared unredacted in documents released by Congress, prompting what they described as 'widespread panic.' Judge Richard Berman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday night requested a detailed description of the materials the government intends to release and an explanation of how it will safeguard the privacy of victims.... Berman, who oversaw the trafficking case against Epstein, attached a letter from attorneys Bradley Edwards and Brittany Henderson that calls for strict privacy protections in future releases.... The lawyers said dozens of victims’ names appeared unredacted in the cache of documents and emails from the Justice Department released this month....”

... The first line of attack [in Nazi Germany] were on judges and lawyers. -- Barbara Pariente, former chief justice on the Florida Supreme Court ~~~

~~~ Brianna Tucker of the Washington Post: “In a dozen interviews with The Washington Post, former judges and one soon-to-be-retired judge described a judiciary under incredible strain and its integrity threatened by partisan attacks, antagonistic rhetoric from public officials and ambiguous decisions handed down by the nation’s highest court. Many judges said the politicization of judges, the Supreme Court’s expanding use of emergency dockets and sustained criticism from the Trump administration have pushed the courts and democracy to a fragile tipping point — one where cooperation with rulings and adherence to the rule of law can no longer be assumed.... [Donald Trump] frequently labels [judges who rule against him] as 'lunatic,' 'rogue,' 'radical left' or 'so-called' judges.... 'You have an easy target in judges, because most codes of judicial conduct prohibit them from responding to criticism in a public way,'  said Wallace Jefferson, a Republican former chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court....”

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