Chailey & Newick Painting Group
Newsletter Ramblings Feb/March 2025
from our old friend Iain Crump
Warning
…… Those with delicate political sensitivities are best advised to read no further. The only Art discussed here this week is ‘The Art of the Deal’.
Update 2025 (1)
Time for a sideways view of the international political horizon.
Hello All,
Well what a week! - Sometimes the world fundamentally changes .... Or appears to.
“There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen” …….
as a bod called Marx once said (not sure if that was Howard, Groucho, Alfred, or Karl ... probably the latter - or maybe it was Lenin – someone will correct me)
Since April 1949 Western Europe has been living comfortably under the admittedly flimsy and un-tested umbrella of NATO, underwritten largely by the taxpayers and Government of the US of A – most European countries, the UK included, having exited the second of two world Wars in 40 years, fundamentally bankrupt.
Donald, not entirely unreasonably, wants us all to pay a lot more into the pot, or USA will depart, along with its toys, and with Ukraine on the boil, leave Europe to paddle its own canoe. He currently has excellent leverage.
This week, in a possible start to his campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize, Donald threw everything up in the air on the Ukraine front, appearing to rule out future support for Zelensky and side-lining both him and other European Leaders from the ‘Peace Process’, while he organises initial talks with Russian representatives in Saudi Arabia (Which came to ……. nothing much visible so far).
Someone might point out to Donald that he will need the votes of a good number of p*ssed-off Europeans to get a Nobel Prize in any category other than, perhaps, ‘Booby’.
He (Donald) has, meanwhile, given Vladimir Putin a seat back at the International debating table, from which he was previously blackballed - for seemingly nil in return - and accused Zelensky of being a dictator who started the war with Russia. One hopes that Zelensky has retained some sense of humour with which to digest those perambulations around and about the truth of the matter.
On home Turf, The Trumpocrasy steams ahead at full speed.
DOGE, controlled by the far more stable and coherent ‘Sidekick in Chief’ (and his son) Elon Musk is; whilst not waving a chainsaw about on stage with the President of Argentina; taking a bureaucratic chainsaw to federal jobs in the tens of thousands, some of which cuts have already had to be rescinded (notably in the Nuclear security sector – bit of a ’shot in foot’, that one).
I wonder how many of those now unemployed bods voted Trump and how they and their friends and relations may vote in the Mid-Terms or subsequently?
But let’s not forget, it may not really be about MAGA, - more likely, it's all about ‘Donald’ and how he sees his status in the world.
So here’s a short modern fairy tale …..
“The Donald sat down in Mar a Lago before his second term and thought long and deeply (no really!) about his debt mountain and numerous Court cases pending and decided that as he was about to be gifted another 4 years in charge, thanks to Shaky Joe, he’d better use the opportunity to sort out his problems before his time was up.
But how to do it?
He then looked around for a role model and lighted upon one - Vladimir Putin – King of the Russes. How did he get himself to where he is – immensely wealthy and effectively owning Russia?
What did he do – he surrounded himself with Oligarchs, changed the legislators to his own protégés and ‘adjusted’ legislation to make the Oligarchs even richer. Then he went round with a begging bowl, the anti-corruption police in tow and shot and poisoned some, locked up or de-fenestrated a few others until they all gave in and provided him with lots of roubles and super-yachts.
Well, said Donald to himself, if a man with as little charisma and business experience as Vladimir Putin can take over Russia and run it as his own piggy bank, then why not me and the US. I’ll do the same”.
Now take a look at what has gone on since Donald’s inauguration – in fact, starting with the inauguration where he was surrounded by Multi-millionaires (US Oligarchs if you will) and his progress since then, sacking previous office holders and getting his own people put into all the key position of power in the government, Legislature, Judiciary, the FBI, so he now ‘owns‘ all these departments. Is there a familiar pattern here?
We should also consider how Putin extended his rule using compliant substitutes to keep the Presidency warm for him, before returning to it. In Donald’s case there are plenty of Trumplets available for that job.
I would love to know what Vladimir thinks of all this week’s drama. There are precedents for US presidents to appear to be off - balance - Nixon and his Chinese negotiations come to mind, but Donald looks more like the genuine article.
Whilst I would like to think he is being very clever, it is more likely, on past experience’ that he is just fundamentally unreliable, untrustworthy and driven by a short attention span, to act upon the advice of whichever second rate ‘Yes-man’ he has most recently heard from, whether they have any grasp of the subject in hand or not.
This means, of course that any one negotiating with Donald can only rely upon shifting sands, denials , retractions and complete contradictions from his direction on a daily basis.
As can be seen this week, his own spokespersons are struggling to keep up with what the President says / means, re-writes.
Out of the sheer volume of utterances of Donald, some of them must be true ... like pitching golf balls at a short hole and getting a hole in one. If you fire enough balls, one will eventually drop.
‘Normal business’ does not look like being resumed any time soon.
Back to Ukraine in the meantime, one cannot sift out any kind of a functional Trumpian plan.
But maybe, the quietly mentioned issue of ‘rare earths’ in the country, which US tech manufacturers want to get their hands on for microchips etc. may be clouding humanitarian and Ukrainian integrity considerations, if the Americans are running another set of backroom talks with Russia or Kiev, or both, on access rights after conflict has ceased.
So
has anything fundamentally changed this week, other than headline appearances?
Should we be worried? – Yes, but about What, Who, How and When, I really don’t know.
Good luck to Keir Starmer on Thursday. Donald clearly wants NATO allies to take over support for Ukraine despite his invective against Zelensky, so maybe K.S has got it right.
Note - There are several days between now and Thursday!
And finally, an old one from Mick Miller to maybe raise a smile after a worrying week:
Son – Dad, Dad!
Father – What, son?
Son – There’s a man at the door …. with a bald head ….
Father – Tell ‘im I’ve already got one ….
