AND: Here's Marco Rubio at the State Department website: "Over the past 48 hours, Vice President Vance and I have engaged with senior Indian and Pakistani officials, including Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, and National Security Advisors Ajit Doval and Asim Malik. I am pleased to announce the Governments of India and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire and to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site. We commend Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif on their wisdom, prudence, and statesmanship in choosing the path of peace."
"You’re afraid to go to class because these lunatics are running around with covers on their face, screaming terrifying things. If you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would have never let you in. If you do it once you get in, we’re going to revoke it and kick you out."
"... between nuclear powers — the United States, helping Ukraine, and Russia. And it needs to come to an end. And no one has any idea or plan to bring it to an end. The plan of the Ukrainians up to now — and their allies on Capitol Hill and people you talk to in other countries — is let's just keep giving them as much as they need for as long as it takes. That's not a strategy."
🚨Update: Secretary Marco Rubio stated - Ukraine conflict is a ‘PROXY WAR’ between US and Russia; Ukraine has no plan to end the war!! pic.twitter.com/n9L01s5bIh
— US Homeland Security News (@defense_civil25) March 6, 2025
🚨Update: Secretary Marco Rubio: Canada becoming a US state is a real possibility! “If you balance out our trade, Canada will cease to exist as a country!”pic.twitter.com/UUPArryP32
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, American officials did not dwell on Russia’s violation of international law in attacking Ukraine, its alleged war crimes or the three years of devastation that Russian shelling and bombardment had wrought in parts of Ukraine. Instead, they repeatedly lauded Mr. Trump for trying to stop the fighting by talking to Russia in a way that his predecessor did not.
“For three years,” Mr. Rubio said, “no one else has been able to bring something together like what we saw today, because Donald Trump is the only leader in the world that can.”...
“We were not invited to this Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Zelensky said while on a visit to Turkey. “It was a surprise for us — I think for many others as well.”
"And I spent a lot of time in my career defending it and explaining it. But it’s harder and harder to do across the board. It really is. But for those of us in charge of doing the work of foreign policy, we understand it is essential. The United States is not walking away from foreign aid. It’s not. But it has to be programs that we can defend. It has to be programs that we can explain. It has to be programs that we can justify. Otherwise, we do endanger foreign aid.... We had a problem with some people in the office.... Does that mean that the actions of 5, 10, 20, 50 people indicted an entire organization? No. But we had people pushing through payments, despite being told not to do so.... [They were] almost inviting themselves to be getting in trouble so they can make a news story out of it. That is not the way we sought to pursue it. And as a result, it required us to do something else in return.... We’re just going to have to do it a little faster than we thought."
That happened yesterday. Today, I see this at the NYT: "The Trump administration plans to retain only about 290 of the more than 10,000 employees worldwide at the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to three people with knowledge of the planned cuts to the work force. The cuts were communicated to agency leaders in a call on Thursday."
"After a meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in San Salvador on Monday, Rubio announced that the [Terrorism Confinement Center] could begin accepting inmates from the US.... The inmates are... crammed into their cells for 23.5 hours a day, with each cell holding 65 to 70 prisoners. Rival gang members are often kept in the same cells.... The mega-prison is capable of holding 40,000 people, with Bukele offering to fill some of the vacancies with criminal migrants and convicted US citizens, for a fee...."
"That's an offer President Bukele made. Obviously, we'll have to study at our end. There are obviously legalities involved. We have a Constitution. We have all sorts of things. But it's a very generous offer. No one's ever made an offer like that, and to outsource at a fraction of the cost, at least some of the most dangerous and violent criminals that we have in the United States...."
"... that he’d told aides that he wanted to pay his first visit 'to a place where they speak Spanish, because I’m bilingual,' proceeding to show off his fluency in the language. Mr. Rubio acknowledged America’s complicated history with Panama, a former Colombian territory that was founded after President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration, eyeing the potential for a shortcut between America’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts, backed breakaway separatists who declared independence in 1903. Mr. Rubio noted that the country 'was born in many ways here as a result of the interests of the United States,' and said the relationship had had its 'ups and downs.' The downs include a 1989 U.S. invasion of the country to arrest the country’s de facto ruler, Gen. Manuel Noriega, on charges of drug trafficking and racketeering.... [Panama's President José Raúl] Mulino also said on Sunday that Panama, which in 2017 became the first country in the region to sign on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a far-reaching infrastructure program, would not renew the agreement...."
The NYT says Rubio "showed off" his fluency in Spanish and "joked" about it, as if it were an amusing side line. But it is important and tremendously useful to his role as Secretary of State. Perhaps to recognize its high value would be to impugn all the many Secretaries of State who were not fluent in Spanish.
If my research — hastily done on Grok — is correct, there was only one other Secretary of State who was fluent in Spanish. That was Henry Clay, back in the time of John Quincy Adams, 1825-1829. What about Thomas Jefferson? — you may be wondering. Jefferson, the first Secretary of State, was fluent in French, Latin, and Italian, but had only a minimal knowledge of Spanish.
"Under threats from President Trump that included steep tariffs, President Gustavo Petro of Colombia has relented and will allow U.S. military planes to fly deportees into the country, after turning two transports back in response to what he called inhumane treatment.... 'Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again,' [said a statement from the White House]."
The accusation of "inhumane treatment" referred to our use of military planes rather than passenger planes.
According to a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, "Colombian President Petro had authorized flights and provided all needed authorizations and then canceled his authorization when the planes were in the air."
Petro's reversal followed on a complaint from Brazil’s foreign ministry about the "'degrading treatment' of its citizens after 88 migrants arrived in the country handcuffed on Friday and some complained of mistreatment after not being given water or allowed to use the bathroom during the flight."
AND: Here's something Trump posted on Truth Social while this faceoff was under way:
As state attorney general, Moody has aligned closely with DeSantis. Her office recently sued to keep an abortion rights amendment off the Florida ballot in November, and she also defended the state’s use of taxpayer dollars to advertise against the measure. The amendment, which DeSantis also opposed, was defeated. Moody also supported DeSantis’s controversial moves to use state funds to fly undocumented immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard and California to make a political point about immigration. In 2020, Moody backed a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to block the election results after President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump....
"He's talking about the border patrol, he's talking about nurses, he's talking about teachers, he's talking about everyday Americans who love their country and want to dream big again and support you, Mr. President. And I hope their campaign is about to apologize for what Joe Biden just said. We are not garbage. We are patriots who love America and thank you for running Mr. President."
Said Marco Rubio to Donald Trump, on stage at Trump's rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania last night. Click the video below, which is cued up to the spot. Trump appears to be hearing this news of President Biden's statement for the first time.
Trump reacts: "Wow. That's terrible.... Remember Hillary? She said 'deplorable' and then she said 'irredeemable.' Right? But she said 'deplorable.' That didn't work out. 'Garbage,' I think is worse. Right? But he doesn't know. You have to please forgive him. Please forgive him! For he not knoweth what he said."
Trump continues: "These people. Terrible terrible terrible — to say a thing like that, but he really doesn't know. He really, honestly, he doesn't. And I'm convinced that he likes me more than he likes Kamala. Convinced. But that's a terrible thing."
It was a terrible thing to say, but you can see that Trump knows that Biden's rhetoric — like Hillary's "deplorable" — was an excellent gift to his campaign. And it came just as Kamala Harris was delivering her big closing-argument speech that was supposed to reach out to all Americans and to characterize her as the one who, unlike Trump, embraced everybody.
"Senator Ted Cruz thanked 'God almighty' for protecting the man who once insinuated that Mr. Cruz’s wife was ugly and his father had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.... Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, for whom Mr. Trump coined the nickname Little Marco, said the former president had 'inspired a movement' among working men and women.... And Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, whom Mr. Trump mocked mercilessly for the height of his boot heels, his polling numbers and his alleged pudding-eating techniques, praised Mr. Trump.... 'Donald Trump has been demonized,' the governor said. 'He’s been sued. He’s been prosecuted, and he nearly lost his life. We cannot let him down, and we cannot let America down.' The parade of former opponents is expected to continue on Wednesday, when a man who privately fretted just eight years ago that Mr. Trump could become 'America’s Hitler' stands side by side with him on the ticket. ..."
Lindsey Graham: "Give me a break — I mean, it’s Trump. All I can say is while Trump was president nobody invaded anybody. I think the point here is to, in his way, to get people to pay."
Marco Rubio: "He told the story about how he used leverage to get people to step up to the plate and become more active in NATO... I have zero concern, because he’s been president before. I know exactly what he has done and will do with the NATO alliance. But there has to be an alliance. It’s not America’s defense with a bunch of small junior partners."
"... on an issue that public opinion had recently deserted them on, as well as fierce opposition from social conservative groups and some religious institutions.... 'I think there was a short period of time where there was a belief that this was being pushed for political reasons,' Baldwin said. 'My Republican colleagues would say to me: "Nobody thinks you’re pushing this for political reasons. They think others are, like the Democratic Party. But nobody is questioning your motives." I think that’s helpful. I mean, I really am earnest about this.'..."
"But in the hands of ByteDance [a Chinese company], it could also be used to subtly indoctrinate American citizens.... The CCP could also use TikTok to propagate videos that support party-friendly politicians or exacerbate discord in American society. Such videos need not originate from CCP proxies — they could be created by anyone. With essentially unlimited data on user-made content at its disposal, Beijing can leverage it to fan the flames of domestic division.
And thanks to the rising number of adults who get their news from TikTok, the platform has the ability to influence which issues Americans learn about, what information they consider accurate, and what conclusions they draw from world events. This places extraordinary power in the hands of company employees who could any day be overruled by the CCP."
Everything is always subtly indoctrinating us. Discord is always getting exacerbated. There will always be a fanning of flames of domestic division, and endless forces will forever influence what information we consider accurate. Gallagher and Rubio haven't made the argument that this one medium of free expression ought to be banned.
If they are such experts on propaganda, why can't they write better propaganda than this op-ed?
"... over whether the Senate should have passed the legislation at all. House officials say they’ve been deluged by voters with split opinions and warnings from sleep specialists who insist that adopting permanent standard time instead would be healthier, and congressional leaders admit they just don’t know what to do."
"After losing an hour of sleep over the weekend, members of the United States Senate returned to the Capitol this week a bit groggy and in a mood to put an end to all this frustrating clock-changing.
So on Tuesday, with almost no warning and no debate, the Senate unanimously passed legislation... making daylight saving time permanent....
Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, rose on the Senate floor on Tuesday to speak in favor of his bill, called the Sunshine Protection Act.... 'One has to ask themselves after a while: Why do we keep doing it?' Mr. Rubio said, adding, 'The majority of the American people’s preference is just to stop the back-and-forth changing.'"
There are times when I suspect that no politician is a true conservative. Rubio doesn't know why things are the way they are and he can see one advantage to a change, and therefore a long-established practice can be abolished. The full Senate, unanimously, votes on the spot to make the change. No debate. Look, we accomplished something seems to be the babyish idea.
Authorities investigating the spasm of violence in Georgia say early signs pointed to a disturbed suspect who claimed he was a sex addict and who saw the spas as “a source of temptation that needed to be eliminated.” Authorities said it was too early to know whether the killings were also racially motivated.
But many advocates and Democratic lawmakers said it was hard to separate Tuesday’s killings from the recent increase in anti-Asian animus, including rhetoric from President Donald Trump....
While many Democrats were quick to condemn the shooting and link it to Trump’s rhetoric, Republicans remained mostly quiet....
Trump repeatedly blamed China for unleashing the virus on the world — and tanking the United States’ economy. During the tirades, Trump repeatedly used racially insensitive names like “China virus,” “Wuhan virus” and “kung flu.”...
An Asian American schoolteacher and her husband found a slur spray-painted on the side of their Nissan Altima after leaving a movie theater. An Asian American man on his way to a boba tea shop was told, “Thanks for covid.”
Across the nation, authorities have investigated roughly 3,800 incidents of anti-Asian abuse, advocates say....
Rubio's tweet is important. Imagine a new rule against criticizing China! But how many of us Americans are the "idiots" Rubio is talking about? These "idiots" are on both sides, politically. Trump, criticizing China, didn't highlight the distinction between China, the country, and people with Chinese ancestry. And Trump's antagonists enthusiastically blurred the distinction.
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