The Great Negotiator sells out Ukraine
Jonathan Pie on inartful deals, big, fucking pussies, and Kremlin propaganda.
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Despite a slow-burning start, once I got pulled into writer-director Maura Velpero’s intimate World War 2 family drama Vermiglio (winner of the Silver Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival and Italy’s Official Selection for the 2025 Academy Awards), I didn’t want it to end.
Imbued with shades of The Leopard, The Last Valley, and Little Women, this tale (set in 1944) takes place in an Alpine hamlet in Italy. Save the occasional sound of a passing aircraft, the war doesn’t intrude directly into the villagers’ daily life. However, the effects of war are palpable; food is scarce (money even more so), infant mortality is high, and most of the young men are serving at the front.
Valpero frames her narrative around a year or so in the life of the populous Graziadei family. The patriarch is Caesare (Tommaso Ragno). Caesar is the village’s resident schoolteacher, conducting general ed classes for children and reading classes for illiterate adults.
His visibly life-tired wife Adele (Roberta Rovelli) is pregnant with their 11th child (two of their children died as infants), and is chagrined that Caesare continues to take money out of their meager finances to purchase classical records (he haughtily defends the purchases as necessary tools to teach the arts).
He counts a number of his own children among the students in the one-room school; he is hardest on his eldest son Dino (Patrick Gardner), who he cruelly browbeats in front of his classmates. He shows a soft spot for his daughters, particularly precocious Flavia (Anna Thaler), who is one of his brightest students.
The heart of the tale is parlayed via the tight relationship between three of the sisters: the aforementioned Flavia and her older siblings Ada (Rachele Potrich) and the enigmatic Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), who all share a bed (and their secrets).
One day, a Sicilian army deserter (Giuseppe De Domenico) takes refuge in the village. Lucia is instantly smitten; the feeling appears to be mutual. Once nature takes its inevitable course, a seismic shift ensues within the family’s dynamics.
This is a simple, yet universal tale that transcends the era it is set in (which is captured with great verisimilitude). I think the story also works as both an elegy to the final vestiges of Old World traditionalism and as a harbinger of post-war mores (I gleaned a nascent feminism in Lucia’s character, a la “Linda” in David Leland’s Wish You Were Here).
Naturalistic performances all around; particularly from first-time actor Scrinzi. Lovely cinematography by Mikhail Krichman (that lush Alpine scenery paints itself). An honest, raw, and emotionally resonant film.
(Opens in Seattle February 28; check for theaters near you here)
Previous posts with related themes:
Grave of the Fireflies/Son of Babylon/Testament
The Earth is as Blue as an Orange
More reviews at Den of Cinema
— Dennis Hartley
We were told last week that Musk has no authority and is simply a presidential adviser. So is Trump telling him to be more aggressive in how he advises him?
No, of course not. Everyone knows that Trump’s delegated the torture and destruction of the federal workforce to Musk and he wants him to really stick it to those workers. Really cause them some pain. Musk saluted smartly and followed those orders:
Those went out to every federal worker.
It’s like they’re all living in a game show.
I highly recommend this piece (gift link) by Adam Serwer about the right wing crusade against DEI. It’s the best thing I’ve read on the subject and it’s profoundly distressing:
The nostalgia behind the slogan “Make America great again” has always provoked the obvious questions of just when America was great, and for whom. Early in the second Trump administration, we are getting the answer.
In August, speaking with someone he believed to be a sympathetic donor, one of the Project 2025 architects, Russell Vought, said that a goal of the next Trump administration would be to “get us off of multiculturalism” in America. Now Vought is running Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, and the plan to end multiculturalism is proceeding apace. Much of the chaos, lawlessness, and destruction of the past few weeks can be understood as part of the administration’s central ideological project: restoring America’s traditional hierarchies of race and gender. Call it the “Great Resegregation.”
[…]
If the Great Resegregation proves successful, it will restore an America past where racial and ethnic minorities were the occasional token presence in an otherwise white-dominated landscape. It would repeal the gains of the civil-rights era in their entirety. What its advocates want is not a restoration of explicit Jim Crow segregation—that would shatter the illusion that their own achievements are based in a color-blind meritocracy. They want an arrangement that perpetuates racial inequality indefinitely while retaining some plausible deniability, a rigged system that maintains a mirage of equal opportunity while maintaining an unofficial racial hierarchy. Like elections in authoritarian countries where the autocrat is always reelected in a landslide, they want a system in which they never risk losing but can still pretend they won fairly.
Just seeing Trump fire the Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Hegseth take out the first female Naval top officer in one night shows you that they aren’t even trying to hide it anymore. This is more than just another backlash. It’s a full-fledged cultural revolution.
Read Serwer’s piece if you have the time. It’s important.
A world run by strongmen:
This is the best summary of the current geopolitical situation I have seen. Sir Alex Younger was head of MI6 between 2014 and 2020. Really worth watching. pic.twitter.com/XByVBAd5Ri
— Nicholas Drummond (@nicholadrummond) February 21, 2025
I found that very interesting. If you can take 7 minutes to listen I think you’ll find it interesting too. And, I’m afraid I have to agree with him although I have zero faith that Donald Trump can see the forest for the trees. Younger’s description of what Trump did with Afghanistan is right on and since he is incapable of ever learning anything, I just can’t see how this ends up any better unless it’s by accident.
I’ve been writing about the inevitability of a new arms race ever since Donald Trump won the election in 2016. It was clear that he was so stupid that he was prepared to tear up the existing world order without any thought for the future except his own ego being stroked. It’s happening now and these escalations almost always result in somebody deciding to use their toys.
Here’s the whole interview:
They’re working hard to save the country money by firing everyone in sight but they have plenty to spend on things like this:
The Department of Homeland Security has budgeted up to $200 million to run anti-immigrant ads in the United States and overseas that repeatedly thank President Donald Trump for leading an immigration crackdown. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Friday night that these ads were Trump’s idea, and during the administration’s transition to power, the president asked her to star in ads thanking him “for closing the border.”
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference’s Ronald Reagan dinner on Friday night — at a tux and gown affair that served striploin, mashed potatoes, and raspberry cake — Noem recalled Trump telling her after she was nominated: “I want you to do [ads] for the border, and I want you to do those everywhere, not just in the United States, but I want them around the world. I want you to tell people not to come to this country if they’re going to come here illegally.”
She said the president continued: “We’re not going to let the media tell this story, because the media will never tell the truth. We’re going to run a marketing campaign to make sure the American people know the truth of what you’re doing.”
[…]
Noem said that Trump instructed that he didn’t want to be in the ads himself, telling her: “I want you in the ads, and I want your face in the ads … but I want the first ad, I want you to thank me. I want you to thank me for closing the border.”
$200 million for Kristi to fluff Trump on TV. Meanwhile, veterans, scientists, researchers public servants all over the federal government are abruptly losing their jobs.
Trump wants those minerals and he wants them now. He believes he will be hailed as a big hero, the prince of peace, if he obtains Ukrainian natural resources as compensation for the U.S. military support and then forces them to surrender to the murderous dictator who invaded them. He really believes that.
His latest “negotiating” tactic is to issue a threat to Ukraine that if it doesn’t turn these resources over, Trump’s personal executioner will cut them off:
U.S. negotiators pressing Kyiv for access to Ukraine’s critical minerals have raised the possibility of cutting the country’s access to Elon Musk’s vital Starlink satellite internet system, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Ukraine’s continued access to SpaceX-owned Starlink was brought up in discussions between U.S. and Ukrainian officials after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy turned down an initial proposal from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the sources said.
Starlink provides crucial internet connectivity to war-torn Ukraine and its military.
The issue was raised again on Thursday during meetings between Keith Kellogg, the U.S. special Ukraine envoy, and Zelenskiy, said one of the sources, who was briefed on the talks.
During the meeting, Ukraine was told it faced imminent shutoff of the service if it did not reach a deal on critical minerals, said the source, who requested anonymity to discuss closed negotiations.
“Ukraine runs on Starlink. They consider it their North Star,” said the source. “Losing Starlink … would be a massive blow.”
Imminent shutdown. How many people do you suppose would die as a result of all communications being shut off during as the war still rages? (Russia has been mercilessly bombarding Kyiv for the last couple of weeks.)
I would normally say that no country should never be dependent on one madman for essential communications equipment. But now that Musk is the U.S. government, what difference does it make? If Trump wants Ukraine punished, as he obviously does, or if Musk simply wants to please his pal Vlad, they could do this and there would be nothing anyone could do about it.
Would Trump and Musk do it? I have no doubt. We are a gangster state now.
I’ve been wondering about how many federal workers might be MAGA cultists who are helping the DOGE crew come in and destroy the government. It stands to reason there would be some. It turns out that it’s a good career move.
Here’s one in the Social Security administration who was willing to break the law for DOGE and got a big reward for it:
Leaders of the Social Security Administration had just opened an investigation into a career employee they believed was improperly sharing information with Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team when President Donald Trump elevated the employee this week to acting commissioner, according to three current or former government officials with knowledge of the events.
The agency’s leadership team became aware in recent weeks that Leland Dudek, a data analyst working in a small anti-fraud office who had been unknown to many of them,was sharing unauthorized access to information with representatives of Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, according to the three, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an internal matter.
It’s not clear what data Dudek shared, but his actions raised enough alarm that he may have violated privacy and tax laws that senior officials placed him on paid leave as they launched their investigation. The officials, including attorneys in the general counsel’s office, also were notified late last week that Dudek had sent harassing emails to employees in the agency’s personnel and security divisions to rush them to let several engineers hired by DOGE start work and gain access to agency computer systems. The officials pushed back, saying that they had not completed background investigations into the new hires.
[…]
Representatives for DOGE — which stands for Department of Government Efficiency, though it is not a Cabinet-level agency — toured the headquarters building this month and were eager to gain access to a key database in their search for benefits fraud. When the team learned last week that Dudek would be investigated, the chief information officer called acting commissioner Michelle King to demand answers. Then, on the Sunday of Presidents’ Day weekend, King received an email announcing that Trump had appointed Dudek to replace her. After being effectively forced out, King abruptly retired after three decades of service, the three individuals said. Her acting chief of staff, Tiffany Flick, also retired.
They just fire anyone who even slightly crosses them and elevate anyone who helps them to positions of authority. That asshole is now in charge of our social security information.
This is much like the General who Trump just hired out of retirement as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs because he has a nickname, wore a MAGA hat and told Trump that he could beat ISIS in a week if he were only allowed to used enough force. He supposedly said, “I love you, I would kill for you.”
A real life Buck Turgidson.
God help us.
TRUMP: The NCAA has complied immediately. That's good. But I understand Maine — is the governor of Maine here?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 21, 2025
JANET MILLS: Yeah I'm here
TRUMP: Are you not gonna comply?
JM: I'm going to comply with state and federal law
T: You better do it bc you're not gonna get any… pic.twitter.com/TLaNe8se7Z
Thank you Janet Mills:
TRUMP: The NCAA has complied immediately. That’s good. But I understand Maine — is the governor of Maine here?
JANET MILLS: Yeah I’m here
TRUMP: Are you not gonna comply?
JM: I’m going to comply with state and federal law
T: WE are the federal law.
JM: I’ll follow the statutes
T: You better do it bc you’re not gonna get any federal funding at all if you don’t. And by the way, your population, even though it’s somewhat liberal, I did very well there, your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports, so you’d better comply otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding
JM: See you in court
T: Good I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one.
JM: It should be for me
T: And enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.
Notice that the rest of those cowards sat there like a bunch of potted plants. They really do yearn to be subjects.
Big round of applause for Mills. She didn’t back down.
What it is ain’t exactly clear
Axios reports that “some Republicans are privately brushing off a spate of raucous protests and town halls in their districts” in response to the Musk-Trump DOGE actions.
The T-party, ostensibly riled about taxes (but really pissed off about having a black president) drew more coverage in 2009. One wonders what sort of media these protests against Musk-Trump will earn. Perhaps silly costumes would help?
Driving the news: Angry constituents flocked to House Republicans’ town hall events and district offices this week to protest DOGE’s efforts to slash spending and lay off huge chunks of the federal workforce.
- Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) faced a large and testy audience at a town hall on Thursday, with Reps. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.), Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) and Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) also getting heated questioning.
- Swing-district Reps. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.) and Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) all had demonstrations outside their offices.
What we’re hearing: One swing-district House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share candid thoughts, told Axios they have “zero concerns” about a protest they’re expecting outside their office.
Republicans seem more afraid of MAGA than their other constituents.
The question is can Musk-Trump’s opponents keep it up, remain loud enough long enough to matter? Staying power is the right’s strong suit.
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