(#5875) Awakening the sleeping giant

      In the 1970 movie Tora Tora Tora, the actor playing the role of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto uttered the phrase, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant” when attacking Pearl Harbor before officially declaring war against the United States of America. I get the same sense now from what trump and vance did to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in the White House a few days ago. In this scenario, trump and vance used a strong arm tactic employed by hitler when working to annex Eastern Europe into his control just previous to World War II. Invite the leader of the country you want to annex and then ambush them with threats. However, Zelenskyy didn't succumb to the pressure from trump/vance and instead defied them.
     The whole affair at the White House was televised so that trump's new ally, tyrant putin, could watch how trump supported him. The rest of the world also watched what trump assumed was going to be a climatic attack and surrender by Zelenskyy. What happened instead was a sickening by those of us who are not cowards nor bullies. We saw first hand the stench of trump play out in real time. His demanding of acquiescence from a hero who is not only fighting for his life but for the life of his country was a bridge too far. What trump was fighting for was favor from a dictator. The shock of it was nearly immediate.
     Not only did the rest of the world feel disgusted with the trump/vance bullying of Zelenskyy but we, myself included, immediately rallied behind Zelenskyy with unwavering support. So the plan of trump to annihilate the pride and conviction of Zelenskyy backfired and served to strengthen it instead. Meanwhile the backlash against trump has been swift and overpowering. An awakening has happened that not only reversed the effect that trump/vance hoped for but made a large segment of our American population awaken to the fact that trump/vance are not on the side of democracy! I use my own Facebook page to back my observations. From before the ambush my page was mostly silent about the trump destruction of our democracy. But since the ambush my page is filled with both disgust for trump and with pride for Zelenskyy/Ukraine.