This Is a Speculative Column. Is It All Right to Speculate?
The Orange Man’s been on the line to Darth Vader again.
“Hello, Vlad. Change of plans, it’s not going as we hoped in Ukraine. That little shit got all full of himself and didn’t take the bait, as he had agreed. But I got a new plan, right out of The Art of the Deal.”
“I’m listening. Apparently, he’s no pushover.”
“No worries. Here’s the deal, and it’s gonna get what we both want. You get Ukraine, and I get a Nobel Peace Prize. You with me?
“Fire away. It better be good, the whole world is turning against us. Even China is nervous, and I had Xi pretty much in the bag.”
“Here’s the deal. I need Zelenskyy to come back, begging me to save him. How I do that is already underway. You’ve done your part, as we discussed last week, and I’ve done mine.
“I cut off all Elon’s satellites, halted all military and financial aid to that little cocksucker, and Europe is too disorganized to get their shit together. Europe just had a big meeting, and Orban in Hungary vetoed the deal, after I swung him a private teriff deal. That ‘coalition of the willing’ don’t seem so willing now, and they’re terrified I’ll pull America out of NATO.
“Meanwhile, you keep bombing the shit out of them, just like we agreed. I’ll have that little comedian back in here in a week, kissing my ass and begging to settle. You up for that?”
“I’ve already done my part. But it’s got to be whole hog, I want the entire country back, including Crimea, and a guarantee they won’t join NATO. The world is beginning to think you’re a pussy, Donald, and I know better. I understand how powerful you are.”
“The world’s about to find out, Vlad.”
Here’s what I think gives credence to this ‘speculation.’
(From today’s Guardian-UK) Thousands of Ukrainian troops who stormed into Russia’s Kursk region last August are almost surrounded by Russian forces there in a major blow to Kyiv, which hoped to use its presence as leverage over Moscow in any peace talks, Reuters has reported, citing open source maps.
(Also from today’s Guardian) Donald Trump has said he finds it it “easier” to work with Russia than Ukraine and that Vladimir Putin was “doing what anybody would do” after Russia launched a massive missile and drone strike on Ukraine days after the US cut off vital intelligence and military aid to Kyiv.
“I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine. And they don’t have the cards,” Trump said in his latest attack on Kyiv. “In terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier dealing with Russia.
“I think he [Putin] wants to get it stopped and settled and I think he’s hitting them harder than he’s been hitting them, and I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now.”
(The Kyiv Post) President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Saudi Arabia on Monday, a day before the planned peace talks between senior Ukrainian and US officials in Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he, too, would be in Saudi Arabia around the same time, ostensibly to work on a “business deal.”
A business deal? In his second term, the Orange Man gives up all pretense and admits ‘private business deals’ while president?
“I’m going to Saudi Arabia,” Trump told reporters, without confirming a date.
“I said, I’ll go if you pay a trillion dollars, $1 trillion to American companies over a four-year period, of a trillion dollars,” he said.
“They’ve agreed to do that, so I’m going to be going there.” The trip to Saudi Arabia would be Trump’s first foreign visit in this, his second presidential term. He said recently that he decided to visit Saudi Arabia rather than Britain because the Arab kingdom promised to buy $450 billion worth of US products, AFP reported. Trump has cultivated close business ties with Saudi Arabia, with the Trump Organization in December announcing a Trump Tower in Jeddah.
In a final insult to the Office of the Presidency, the Orange Man has dedicated his remaining time in office to building his private wealth.
Most of it on intimidation and extortion.
If that was a proposed script for a Hollywood movie, it would never find funding, being too preposterous for believability.
In the Orange Man’s criminal hideaway, anything is possible.