Melinda Hellyer retweeted
"Everything Trump touches dies."
Trump has an ability to not only convince relatively intelligent people to do incredibly stupid things, but to make them feel comfortable, protected, and insulated in doing them. Jensen Huang is the latest example.
Another example is Elon Musk. Besides absolutely obliterating his brand, I would not be surprised if the worst is yet to come for Musk.
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
I am not surprised.
❗️ Russia refuses to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow has no intention of accepting Europe's proposal for a ceasefire. He claimed that European countries are trying to give Ukraine a “breather” to rebuild its military capabilities.
“We will not agree to another ceasefire without understanding what comes next,” Lavrov said.
According to him, clear security guarantees must be agreed upon first, and only then can a ceasefire be discussed.
Is anyone surprised?
It seems Noem really was this stupid. It's not even an actual business.
Did all these Trumpers believe he'd rule forever, therefore they'd never get caught?
Neguse: Where is this company headquartered?
Noem: I don’t know.
Neguse: I don’t know either. We can’t find it. We did find an address that’s registered to a political operative. This company that received 143 million dollars was incorporated 8 days before this contract went out.
You want the American people to believe that this is all above board, that $143 million of taxpayer money just happened to go to this one company that doesn't have a headquarters, doesn't have a website, has never done work for the federal government before and is registered apparently or attached to a residence from a political operative, and of course one of the subcontractors of that contract, as you know, is a political firm that's tied to, to you back when you were governor of South Dakota?
This should not be possible in a democracy. Whatever allowed it to happen must be changed.
If this is real, and I have a feeling it is based on things I’ve been hearing from Blanche recently, he’s going to get away scott free with billions. And laugh about it on his own private golf course. This country is fucked.
5
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
Here's a list of Democrats on the US House Committee on Homeland Security who can do something about ICE concentration camps:
@BennieGThompson
@RepJulieJohnson
@RepLouCorrea
@RepShriThanedar
@Rep_Magaziner
@RepDanGoldman
@repdeliaramirez
@RepTimKennedy
@RepLaMonica
@RepPabloJose
@RepNellie
@Rep_Walkinshaw
@RepAnalilia
@RepTroyCarter
@RepAlGreen
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
"The records, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, provide stark evidence of what immigration advocates have called a 'crisis' since Trump and his administration launched an aggressive deportation push."
sfchronicle.com/us-world/art…
ICE and Trump have no humanity for those they deem less than them.
An investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle found that ICE's own death reviews identified deficient care in 23 cases out of the 29 deaths they examined between January 2025 and January 2026.
Some of the documented care failures included delayed treatments, medication mismanagement, and instances where staff failed to perform CPR during emergencies.
This is based on ICE's own internal findings.
These humans died in preventable ways. They should still be alive. There isn't a Hell hot enough for everyone who's responsible for this Nazi shit.
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
Alternate frame: list countries besides Iran that have profited from this war. Cross check with countries Trump & Kushner are aligned with or beholden to.
This is not a US failure if the new mission of the US under Trump is to be so weakened that life becomes easier for autocrats, starting with Russia.
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
Listen to the Crooked Con panelist from J Street say that Abdul and Troy Jackson didn’t perform “as well as others” because they described Gaza as a genocide and then the speaker gets booed by the crowd and says “Boo if you want, I’m right”
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
More evidence of Russian war crimes, while Kushner and Witkoff meet with the Russians, yet again.
Footage exclusively obtained from Ukrainian authorities and analyzed by CNN reveals new details of how Russia struck an underground shelter and aid hub in southeastern Ukraine with a massive bunker-busting bomb.
Russia, which consistently denies targeting civilians, has not commented on the strike itself. In a statement to state media, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had attacked Ukrainian military units in the area that day. cnn.it/3WBpTMC
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
Take this graf, for instance:
Our work has focused on four interconnected priorities: ending the fighting, developing credible postwar security guarantees and arrangements that reduce the risk of renewed conflict, preparing a comprehensive economic and prosperity plan for Ukraine, and advancing humanitarian measures to alleviate suffering and address the human consequences of this war.
Translated from your bullshit it means:
- Disarming Ukraine while giving Russia financial lifelines
- No restrictions on Russian forces, broad limits on NATO deployments.
- You, Witkoff and the rest of your criminal enterprise raping Ukraine on mineral rights.
- No consequences to Putin for wholesale war crimes.
God, at least don't use some Temu Claude to write you garbage. It's transparent.
See you in at the hearings.
President Trump is determined to bring an end to this horrible war, which has caused enormous loss of life, destruction, and suffering. We are working hard to find a negotiated solution that can deliver lasting peace and create the conditions for a sovereign, secure, and prosperous Ukraine within a more stable European security environment.
Before beginning the two days of trilateral talks with Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi, @SEPeaceMissions and I will meet with our partners from Ukraine, the EU, NATO, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy to continue the close consultation and coordination we have undertaken on European security and Ukraine’s postwar future over the past several weeks.
These will be the first trilateral talks since February. Building on our separate consultations with both sides, our objective is to bring Ukraine and Russia together to discuss directly their postwar security concerns, proposals, and potential solutions. We hope these discussions will identify areas of common ground, advance practical solutions, and build momentum toward the next phase of negotiations.
Ultimately, achieving a comprehensive and lasting settlement will also require direct engagement between Russia and our European partners on the broader security arrangements that affect them. We hope the discussions in Abu Dhabi will create the conditions for that engagement to begin in the near future, as part of a broader multilateral process.
Our work has focused on four interconnected priorities: ending the fighting, developing credible postwar security guarantees and arrangements that reduce the risk of renewed conflict, preparing a comprehensive economic and prosperity plan for Ukraine, and advancing humanitarian measures to alleviate suffering and address the human consequences of this war.
Together with Ukraine, the EU, and other European partners, we are working to address Ukraine’s substantial postwar fiscal and reconstruction needs, support critical infrastructure, attract private investment, and create the conditions for long-term economic growth and self-sufficiency.
We are also working with the parties on important humanitarian issues, including the return of prisoners and civilians, and practical measures to alleviate suffering and reduce the human cost of this conflict.
An important part of this process is encouraging all parties to begin thinking seriously about what comes after the war. By discussing postwar security, economic recovery, and the mechanisms needed to prevent future conflict, we hope to shift the focus from managing the war toward building the foundations for a durable peace.
The existing European security agreements and institutions provide an important foundation for this work. We want to build upon what has worked, identify where existing mechanisms have fallen short, and what practical improvements are needed to make them more effective in the future. Our discussions will focus on stronger consultation, reliable crisis communications, greater military transparency, and reciprocal measures to reduce escalation risks, while fully respecting the sovereignty and independent decision-making of every nation.
This is an extraordinarily difficult and complicated conflict. We recognize the difficult decisions ahead and are approaching these discussions with determination and realism. Our hope is to make meaningful progress, establish a practical pathway forward, and help create the conditions for a lasting peace.
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
Zelenskyy: I see changes in what the US team says. From the start I told US envoys Witkoff and Kushner that Ukraine is not real estate.
You cannot talk about two kilometers plus, two kilometers minus on the land of people whose lives were destroyed. 1/
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk:
Trump promised to end the war in 24 hours. Now he has decided to finance it. These are already the longest 24 hours in human history.
Witkoff called putin a humanitarian. I have interviewed hundreds of people released from russian captivity. They were beaten, raped, locked in wooden boxes, had their fingers cut off, their fingernails ripped out, and were tortured with electric shocks to their genitals. One woman described how her eye was gouged out with a spoon.
What is happening now is an imitation of a peace process.
I met a five-year-old girl in Kyiv. The russians abducted her mother because of her pro-Ukrainian views, tortured her, and repeatedly gang-raped her. They then took her to russia and fabricated a criminal case against her.
The girl hugged me, burst into tears, and began begging: “Please, bring my mommy back.” I am a human rights lawyer, but I have no legal tools to force russia to return her. I hugged the girl and promised that we would fight for her mother.
Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was my friend and colleague. She traveled to the occupied territories to tell the truth about russian crimes. She was abducted, tortured, and secretly transferred to russia. She was held without formal charges and without contact with the outside world.
She was denied medical care. She weighed just 30 kilograms. The russians refused to return her body to her parents for six months. When they finally did, several internal organs, her eyes, her brain, and part of her trachea were missing. We still do not know how she died.
Viktoriia believed that the truth could save thousands of lives. That people in other countries, once they learned the truth, would make the right decisions.
My friend and teacher, Professor Ihor Kozlovskyi, spent 700 days in russian captivity. For months, he was held alone in a small, dark basement cell without windows or fresh air. Rats crawled out of the sewer.
He gave philosophy lectures to the rats just to hear a human voice. He was tortured so severely that after his release, he had to learn to walk again.
Kozlovskyi told me: “Everything I have experienced does not make me see myself as a victim. The foundation of our existence is dignity. And dignity is action.”
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
Thank you @ChrisVanHollen for leading this letter demanding US-Israel military tech and intelligence-sharing provisions be removed from the NDAA. We were proud to support it.
No deepening of our military relationship with Israel unless they comply with the Gaza peace agreement, end settler violence and reverse their de facto annexation of the West Bank.
A group of 12 influential Senate Democrats is demanding that the NDAA exclude language deepening Israel-U.S. defense technology sharing — the first sign of how the incoming Democratic majority may position itself toward Israel.
punchbowl.news/article/defen…
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
The Trump admin just gave a biosecurity firm linked to Trump’s sons nearly $40 million to screen for Ebola and other diseases.
Past admins have used the CDC or WHO, but Trump doesn’t care about public health, he only cares about making his family richer. propublica.org/article/trump…
Melinda Hellyer retweeted
Okay, I sat down and translated parts of yet another pompous statement from Jared Kushner about Trump’s incredible peace initiatives, explaining what his carefully worded euphemisms actually mean, so you don’t have to.
“…the need for a broader European security architecture that can help establish the conditions for lasting peace…”
= “Europe will have to completely capitulate to Putin, make him the master of the continent, and live under his dictates, because we’re absolutely itching to get our hands on Lukoil’s foreign assets.”
“For more than 30 years, Europe and Russia have struggled to establish a sustainable security framework.”
= “For decades, Europe and the entire West enjoyed peace and stability, until Putin, in his old age, suddenly got the itch to conquer Ukraine again, fucked it up spectacularly, and now somehow that’s everybody else’s problem.”
“Our objective is to develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides, reduce the risk of future conflict, and create a more stable and predictable security environment.”
= “You will be required to surrender everything and remain defenseless, while Putin will give you absolutely nothing in return and won’t be obliged to do a damn thing.”
“Decades of mistrust, competing security concerns, and the devastating consequences of this war make this an extraordinarily difficult challenge, but one that is essential to lasting peace.”
= “And we’re also going to blame you and Ukraine for Russia’s aggressive imperialism.”
“Any arrangements must fully respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independent decision-making of every nation.”
= “And Putin will decide where your sovereignty begins and ends, where your borders lie, and just how much independence you’re allowed to have.”
“Each country will retain authority over its own security and alliances, and no country would have a veto over another’s sovereign choices.”
= “Yes, unless Putin decides that you’re not actually a real country at all, but an inseparable part of Russia’s sphere of influence, and that your ability to defend yourself against an invasion constitutes an existential threat to Russia.”
“We will consult closely with our European partners on the sidelines and, if progress is made, aim to move toward a broader multilateral format with their direct participation.”
= “Nobody is going to discuss a damn thing with Ukraine or Europe. There won’t be, and never has been, anything here except our attempts to sell out and betray you to Putin for the highest possible price. And I’ll throw in a whole bunch of meaningless, boilerplate diplomatic phrases to make this bullshit look vaguely serious and respectable.”
“There are no easy solutions.”
= “Russia could simply get the hell out of Ukraine and stop launching wars of aggression whenever it wants, but that’s not what Putin is promising us money for.”
“We will see how these discussions develop and continue working intensively with all parties toward President Trump’s objective of a comprehensive and lasting peace.”
= “Of course, absolutely nothing will come of any of this, just as nothing has come of all the previous years of these ridiculous ‘negotiations,’ during which we’ve been actively helping Putin wage his war. But we couldn’t care less. That’s not what we’re here for.”
