Great essay. As an American, I struggle trying to think what it might take to make my country expunge this vile beast. Why have my countrymen succumbed to the rants of patent fascists. I don't like to use clichés but one is so apt: the mad mem, and homicidal mad men at that, run the asylums
Hello, David. I see you're followed by some of those I follow and who follow me. I enjoy your posts very much, and you battled to get content out even when you were going through a medical crisis. Bravo. I hope you're recovering well.
It appears that the President and his Vice President were holding guns to head of the President of Ukraine, and he stood up to them. He was very brave.
I've encountered reasonable people who say they are wary of Mr Zelenskyy, that they don't quite trust him. He's an actor, after all. That's true. Aren't all politicians?
I knew someone once who was charged in court, and I coached him on how to act his way out of it, and it worked. To deny what you know they cannot prove; to challenge them to think differently and believe themselves; and always to look the judge in the eye, with supplication and frankness, not defiance.
But how one views Zelenskyy is pretty much down to how one views Starmer and Badenoch, or Harris and Trump, or even Medvedev and Putin. It's not even the best of a bad bunch. It's the least worst of a bad bunch. Oh, how we yearn for a Nelson Mandela to appear from the wings and shine a light, a Kofi Annan or a Ban Ki-moon. Even a Mikhail Gorbachev.
There may be some who doubt whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy is of that mettle; I say that he is the best of the bad bunch, if bad is what he is. If he's any better than bad, which I personally think he is, then he is up there with Mandela. Put it this way, do we favour Europe being under Putin's thumb, under Trump's thumb, or in partnership with an, at worst, questionable Zelenskyy?
If that's not the best, whether of a bad bunch or otherwise, I don't know what is.
Can you imagine what would have happened if the Americas had of abandoned England at her time of need in facing Hitler instead of approving the lend-lease program? I believe that Trump maybe leading America back to where it was before WW2.
I have enough difficulty assessing "what is", in the present, without considering "what might have been" in the past. But I'll give you a "what might have been" of more recent date.
What if that row had not erupted, and Zelenskyy had agreed to sign away five times the purported "American investment" in this war, and gone with that bit of paper back to Kiev, and stepped out of his aeroplane and waved it to the waiting crowds to tell them he had achieved "peace in our time"?
What concerns me is that, even if it'd been signed, it'd have been worthless. The United States would have let Russia in over the whole country, would have taken whatever minerals they wanted, subject not to Kyiv's say-so, but Moscow's. That's what I mean by "having nothing to lose".
Zelenskyy gained yesterday. He gained another chance. If he'd have stayed, he'd have lost, to both Putin and Trump.
Bravery comes from one of two things: love deep ensconced in the heart; and having nothing to lose. In Zelenskyy's case, both applied, I'm convinced.
"You want me to haul the rapists off your wife? Why, it's your fault she's being raped in the first place. If only you had stood back and said, 'Here, guys, take her. She's yours.' Then she'd have been happily married by now, to this band of mobsters."
Great essay. As an American, I struggle trying to think what it might take to make my country expunge this vile beast. Why have my countrymen succumbed to the rants of patent fascists. I don't like to use clichés but one is so apt: the mad mem, and homicidal mad men at that, run the asylums
Hello, David. I see you're followed by some of those I follow and who follow me. I enjoy your posts very much, and you battled to get content out even when you were going through a medical crisis. Bravo. I hope you're recovering well.
We live in interesting times.
It appears that the President and his Vice President were holding guns to head of the President of Ukraine, and he stood up to them. He was very brave.
Also, it seems that Zelenskyy has a unique trait not found in the species of politicians, honesty!
I've encountered reasonable people who say they are wary of Mr Zelenskyy, that they don't quite trust him. He's an actor, after all. That's true. Aren't all politicians?
I knew someone once who was charged in court, and I coached him on how to act his way out of it, and it worked. To deny what you know they cannot prove; to challenge them to think differently and believe themselves; and always to look the judge in the eye, with supplication and frankness, not defiance.
But how one views Zelenskyy is pretty much down to how one views Starmer and Badenoch, or Harris and Trump, or even Medvedev and Putin. It's not even the best of a bad bunch. It's the least worst of a bad bunch. Oh, how we yearn for a Nelson Mandela to appear from the wings and shine a light, a Kofi Annan or a Ban Ki-moon. Even a Mikhail Gorbachev.
There may be some who doubt whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy is of that mettle; I say that he is the best of the bad bunch, if bad is what he is. If he's any better than bad, which I personally think he is, then he is up there with Mandela. Put it this way, do we favour Europe being under Putin's thumb, under Trump's thumb, or in partnership with an, at worst, questionable Zelenskyy?
If that's not the best, whether of a bad bunch or otherwise, I don't know what is.
It is amazing how history may repeat itself. Thank you Graham.
Can you imagine what would have happened if the Americas had of abandoned England at her time of need in facing Hitler instead of approving the lend-lease program? I believe that Trump maybe leading America back to where it was before WW2.
I have enough difficulty assessing "what is", in the present, without considering "what might have been" in the past. But I'll give you a "what might have been" of more recent date.
What if that row had not erupted, and Zelenskyy had agreed to sign away five times the purported "American investment" in this war, and gone with that bit of paper back to Kiev, and stepped out of his aeroplane and waved it to the waiting crowds to tell them he had achieved "peace in our time"?
What concerns me is that, even if it'd been signed, it'd have been worthless. The United States would have let Russia in over the whole country, would have taken whatever minerals they wanted, subject not to Kyiv's say-so, but Moscow's. That's what I mean by "having nothing to lose".
Zelenskyy gained yesterday. He gained another chance. If he'd have stayed, he'd have lost, to both Putin and Trump.
Bravery comes from one of two things: love deep ensconced in the heart; and having nothing to lose. In Zelenskyy's case, both applied, I'm convinced.
"You want me to haul the rapists off your wife? Why, it's your fault she's being raped in the first place. If only you had stood back and said, 'Here, guys, take her. She's yours.' Then she'd have been happily married by now, to this band of mobsters."