North to Alaska!

"With the economy teetering right now in Moscow, and the Ruble getting ready to hit junk status, carrots look pretty good to Vladimir Putin. Let's hope that Trump can pull the right rabbit (AND CARROTS) out of his hat before the next meeting."     

The big (and I mean BIG) meeting is now history. What did we learn? Not too much, although there were some vital takeaways. Like what, Bird? First off, it happened. That in itself, was nothing short of a miracle. Getting Putin to come to Alaska (which many Russians still consider to be stolen land) and meet with Donald Trump - was really something. But it gets better - much better.

Watching YouTube last night to pick up on what the "buzz was", about two or three of the YouTubers I follow said basically the same thing. I thought having a couple of F-22 jets parked so close to the red carpet that Putin might trip over them was really a class act. The YouTubers disagreed - they thought the most ballsy thing that Trump has done in both his terms so far, was to fly a nuclear bomber right over the head of the President of Russia. Brilliant! Our best of the best was all on display for Putin; a B-2 bomber, F-22 fighter jets and F-35 fighter jets. I felt intense pride in seeing all of that!   

To me, regardless of what was discussed behind closed doors, the frosting in the cake was the homage Putin paid to Trump during the questionless presser at the end of the meeting. Most of us have heard Donald Trump say dozens and dozens of times, that if he had been president in 2022, this Ukraine War would have never happened. Then out of the blue, Putin said the same thing. In a way, both Trump and Putin blamed this war on Joesph R. Biden.

The one time we saw Trump get kind of blindsided, was when Putin invited Trump to Moscow to have a follow-on meeting. The look on Trump's face said it all - there is no way on this planet that Trump (and maybe Zelenskyy) would travel to Moscow. That would spell danger with a capital "D". But that being said, Putin did sound like he would like another meeting. That is a good thing - maybe a very good thing.

Can we trust Putin? Sorry, I am not the person to ask. I trust him not an inch. But sometimes to travel through a swamp to get to someplace better, you need to walk with the snakes. Putin would still love to get all of Ukraine and then keep going westward. We all know that - Trump knows that better than most.

Is there a new bromance with Putin and Trump? Not hardly. I think of this as more of a modern version (and male version) of Taming of the Shrew. The old "carrot and the stick" system does not work well with Putin - only the carrot works (at times). With the economy teetering right now in Moscow, and the Ruble getting ready to hit junk status, carrots look pretty good to Vladimir Putin. Let's hope that Trump can pull the right rabbit (AND CARROTS) out of his hat before the next meeting.