THE QUOTE attributed to Winston Churchill, “History is written by victors”, needs an update for the world of social media and “alternative facts”.
The most recent statement from US President Donald Trump, “We want to end it. It’s a senseless war. It should have never happened”, is at best half-right, in that this and other wars should never happen.
He also said, “You (Ukraine) should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
History will, or should state that Russia started it and “a deal” to prevent the war would have been only achieved by Ukraine surrendering immediately, and no country would do that.
The real concern for negotiating a solution is, does the “we” refer to Russia/US or Russia/Ukraine, or all three? And therein lies the problem. The war is between two neighbors and until recently Ukraine was strongly supported by America, usually an opponent of Russia until Trump and Vladimir Putin became great friends.
Whatever the final outcome is, so many people have died, some much destruction has occurred and so many lies have already been told, mostly by one person.
History will not remember President Trump well unless he can completely change his approach and the first month of his second presidency does not suggest this will happen.
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Red hair and freckles are good
There have been many surprises since the start of the second Trump Presidency, some stupid as with the enthusiasm for the reintroduction of plastic straws and some offensive with the banning of transgender people in the military services.
Now comes another action that is both offensive and stupid even though of minor concern for most people – the removal of a book “Freckleface Strawberry” from schools serving military families, for a “compliance review”.
The book’s story of accepting differences in people is of specific interest to me as a red-headed, freckled individual.
Red hair and freckles can be a source of attack for bullies but it is nothing to be ashamed of. The proposed review for “gender ideology” and “racial indoctrination” seems futile as there are no parts related to gender or race.
Book banning is almost always wrong, restricts personal freedom, and does not improve a society’s safety or moral character. It is also too easy to do as shown by a person who decided as a joke to ask for the Bible to be banned in a local library as it contains violence, which it does; they were successful.
Let people read about the world, factual and fictional and develop their own understanding of it.
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‘Eggcited’ by this ‘eggsasperating’ egg theft
Some omelette-loving thieves have stolen 100,000 eggs from the back of a truck in Greencastle, Pennsylvania.
It’s hard to say how much they are worth as my local store doesn’t have any eggs to compare the price with. Australia, like many countries, has been badly hit by the avian flu.
If they eat a decimal dozen of 10 every week they will have enough for almost 200 years although they might cause a stink by then.
What will happen to the eggs, held to ransom, sold in a back alley individually, or even given to a food charity? It could be used for a record but Guiness requires a lot of documentation so they will no longer be anonymous.
Off to the bat poles Batman. We need your help. (Apologies to Egghead from the 60s Batman show.)
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Misspelling
President Trump, at his latest press conference, said that both Russia’s Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy want peace, or was it piece? The words sound the same.
In simple terms, Zelensky wants peace for Ukraine, whereas Putin wants a piece of Ukraine.
The English language is complex and a letter can change the meaning completely, given Trump and Tramp are only a letter different.
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Multicolored mayhem
Just when you thought US politics couldn’t get any more silly, Representative Earl “Buddy” Carter is trying to rename Greenland to “Red, White and Blueland”.
Check the date – it’s not actually April 1.
It’s also odd given that President Trump reduced genders to male or female officially despite reality, so the rainbow of colors can be thrown away.
With the colors red, white, blue, and green already used there is only orange, but that’s taken by the President, and yellow, but that’s taken by a number of politicians, leaving only indigo and violet, which are almost the same anyway. So the secret task is to find a way to use purple everywhere. Get going!/PN
