Did Senator Chris Murphy sabotage President Trump's Oval Office meeting with President Zelensky to sign an important mineral rights agreement?

 Like an overprotective mother comforting a spoiled child, progressive Democratic politicians were quick to comfort President Vladimir Zelensky after his acrimonious meeting with President Trump last week. 

As widely reported, Zelensky appeared at the Oval Office to sign a mineral rights deal that would pave the way for a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Zelenski behaved disrespectfully toward President Trump, and the mineral agreement didn't get signed. Indeed, the President sent Zelensky packing without feeding him lunch.

Senator Bernie Sanders, who never misses an opportunity to show Americans he's a grumpy, superfluous old geezer, said Americans are "embarrassed" and "ashamed' of President Trump for the way the President is handling the Ukraine war. Senator Chuck Schumer accused Trump of "doing Putin's dirty work," disingenuously implying that Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are allies in the Ukraine war.

Senator Chris Murphy, whose attack on President Trump verged on hysteria, said this:

[Trump's Oval Office meeting with Zelensky] "was a planned ambush designed to embarrass President Zelensky to benefit Vladimir Putin. That was an embarrassment. That was an abomination. What you watched was American power being destroyed in the world as everybody watches President Trump become a lapdog for a brutal dictator in Moscow.

Indeed, Senator  Murphy may have deliberately undermined President Trump's effort to bring peace to Ukraine when he and perhaps some other Democratic senators met privately with Zelensky just minutes before the Russian president's scheduled meeting with Trump and Vice President Vance. 

According to the New York Post, Senator Murphy may have encouraged the Ukrainian president not to sign the mineral deal, which was the chief reason Zelensky was slated to meet with President Trump less than an hour later.

If the Post's surmise is accurate, then Senator Murphy used his meeting with Zelensky to undermine the Trump administration's diplomatic efforts to end three years of bloodshed in Ukraine.

In my view, Zelensky is a scoundrel, and Senator Murphy is a sneak. I would like to see the Ukrainians kick Zelensky out of office and the U.S. Senate censor Senator Murphy for attempting to sabotage Trump's noble effort to bring peace to Eastern Europe.

Thuggery afoot in Washington, DC

Feds spend millions on Betsy DeVos' personal security: Do Americans hate her that much?

Politico (Nicole Gaudiano and Caitlin Emma) reported that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' security detail is projected to cost taxpayers $7.87 million in the coming fiscal year. That's up by about $1.5 million over last year's cost: $6.24 million.

Betsy is protected by the U.S. Marshals Service, which says its job is to "monitor and mitigate threats" to DeVos's personal safety.

Is that cost really necessary? After all, the four previous Education secretaries were content to be protected by the Department of Education's modest security force.

I have a few comments about Secretary DeVos' security detail. First, since DeVos' security costs are going up, that must mean that threats against her are accelerating. If that's true, maybe DeVos and President Trump should ask themselves why so many people are angry with her instead of just hiring more marshals.

Indeed, millions of student-loan borrowers have lots of reasons to be mad at Betsy DeVos: her gross mishandling of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, her efforts to water down protections for students who were defrauded by their colleges, and her shameless pandering to the for-profit college industry.

But then Betsy DeVos' heavy security detail is probably not that unusual among the nation's top public officials. I feel sure that most powerful politicians--Republicans and Democrats alike--have bodyguards. Do you think Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Lindsey Graham, and Mitch McConnell go to the grocery store unaccompanied?

What a world we live in! Our elected and appointed officials--people we count on to look after the public interest--are being driven around in chauffeured limousines--protected from public contact by tinted glass and armed bodyguards. The only citizens they spend any time with are rich people with big checks in their hands.

So if you want to meet Betsy DeVos, you have two choices. You can become filthy rich and make a big donation to the Republican Party. In gratitude, Betsy might invite you over for cocktails on her yacht, the Seaquest.

If you aren't rich, you won't meet Betsy DeVos unless you throw yourself in front of her limousine and get run down by her chauffeur. Maybe then you and Betsy could have a little chat about your student loans while you're waiting for an ambulance.

Betsy's yacht