The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Savvy King, nervy Trump

    Savvy King, nervy Trump

    US President, Donald Trump, felt he had gamed the world when, after bullying poor Voldomyr Zelensky, embattled President of Ukraine, the UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer came bearing a flattering letter from Charles III, the British monarch, inviting Trump to a state visit.

    Trump’s body language was utterly triumphalist.  He just read the riot act to Zelensky: go grab humiliating peace or roll over before Russia’s Vladimir Putin!  Trump, with his glorious isolationism, had become global emperor, before whom everyone must fawn!

    But not quite!  A day or two after, King Charles was warmly welcoming Zelensky to his royal presence, even as London streets, bubbled with the British hoi polloi, toasting Ukraine, and decrying as disgraceful Trump’s show of shame at the White House. 

    That horrid show, they insist, exalted the aggressor and buried the victim.  That would not happen under their watch as Britons!

    On that, all Brits, royals, patricians or plebs, appear to agree.  But that was tantamount to pelting rotten eggs on the pink face of Trump — and just as well!

    From a Daily Mail report, quoting diplomatic sources from Washington DC, PM Starmer’s public show of massaging Trump’s ego, bang in front of klieglights, now feels “less special” to Trump.

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    The stark MAGA mob  always around Trump reportedly questioned how appropriate it was for Charles III to shower Zelensky with such open affection — someone their bully ensemble had left for dead? They also wondered why 10, Downing Street did not stop the king, knowing insecure Trump would declare himself displeased and ruffled.

    But the British order fired back: though the King reigns, not rule, no one dictates to him who to see or who not to; though polite British conventions have worked out fine cohabitation between the Crown and the Commons, hinged on mutual respect and honour. But such fine etiquettes seem beyond the bullying and transactional ken of the Trump presidential court.

    Still, the British King had more aces up his royal sleeves, it would appear.  He also hosted Prime Minister Justin Tradeau of Canada, at a time Trump was buffeting Canada in a needless trade war, aside nettling the PM as “governor” of US’s 51st state!

    Weighing in on suggestions that Trump might just be “sulking”, Downing Street dismissed such outright.  Still, the PM’s office admitted, per Daily Mail: “Things definitely went a bit cool in Washington after Sandringham” — the King’s house Zelensky visited — “We told them that the King makes his own decisions about who he meets.”  Trust the British, supreme masters of ambiguities!

    English romantic poet, William Wordsworth, may have quipped: “The child is father of the man,” a brilliant irony from his 1802 poetics.  But that has held a literal truth in the contemporary globe, with America, Britain’s “child”, strutting as the father of the so-called free world.

    Charles III, with Zelensky and Tradeau, just told the child not to overreach himself!

  • Between N7b and N5b

    Between N7b and N5b

    According to reports, reinstated Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly Mudashiru Obasa and his deputy, Mojisola Meranda, are not on the same page regarding vehicles purchased for lawmakers during Meranda’s brief speakership after Obasa was removed.

    Obasa was said to have approved N7bilion for the purpose before he was ousted by the majority of the lawmakers on January 13 over allegations of imperiousness and financial impropriety, among others. Meranda, who replaced him, resigned on March 3 and was reinstated as deputy speaker based on an arrangement by hierarchs of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Reports said after Meranda took over, she had purchased 32 Toyota Prado SUV 2025 and seven Toyota Landcruiser 2025 for N5billion, rather than the N7billion budgeted by Obasa, thereby saving the assembly N2billion.  Obasa was said to have approved N7billion for the purchase of 35 Toyota Fortuner SUV and 10 Toyota Prado from Dubai. Meranda was said to have reviewed the approval and called for bidding locally. All the vehicles were supplied locally, contrary to Obasa’s plan to import the vehicles from Dubai.

    A source was quoted as saying Meranda “only made a downward review of an existing procurement approval” by Obasa, adding that “no money was withdrawn” by her and she had “spent far less money to acquire better quality cars and didn’t even approve a single one for the office of the Speaker that she occupied.”

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    If Obasa’s N7billion budget was for 45 vehicles from Dubai, and Meranda bought 39 vehicles for N5billion locally, the difference in the number of vehicles could possibly explain the difference in the cost of the vehicles.

    However, it is unclear why Meranda bought 39 vehicles instead of 45 vehicles planned by Obasa.  The assembly comprises 40 lawmakers, two from each of the 20 local government areas. If 39 vehicles were adequate, why did Obasa plan to buy 45? Also, if the vehicles could be supplied locally, why did Obasa plan to import them from Dubai? Considering that Meranda saved N2billion by buying the vehicles at a lower cost, it is puzzling that Obasa was said to be “infuriated.” He should not be.

    The Lagos State House of Assembly does not need another storm so soon after the crisis that resulted from the controversial removal of Obasa. Following the resolution of the crisis by APC leaders, the lawmakers should be making efforts to manage the peace and avoid starting a new war.   

  • Galadima’s queer theory

    Galadima’s queer theory

    Buba Galadima, northern elder and controversial critic, has woven a rather quaint — if not queer — deflation theory: falling food prices are a conspiracy against the North!

    In his preening (il)logic, northern farmers had all fled their farms because of sundry insecurity.  If farmers are in ‘exile’, so to say from farms, how come the more food stuffs that have sent food inflation on a steady but progressive southward spiral?

    Galadima answered own question.  Hear from the horse’s mouth: “The government has started massive food importation … “

    True.  The Federal Government indeed announced temporary food imports, to make for shortfalls, pending the time own huge farming intervention to tackle food inflation matured.  But Hardball wonders if that importation would pass for “massive”.  That’s a Galadima hyperbole, for whatever motives.

    But Galadima’s accompanying conspiracy theory is definitely false, which further shed light on his “massive” hyperbole.

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    Again, hear direct from the horse’s mouth:  “… this will make the economy of the North, which depends on agriculture, to dwindle as many won’t be able to farm again to gain any meaningful profit.”  Haba, Alhaji!  For real? Are you griping because food is getting cheaper?  Must everything be politics?

    That the medium on which Galadima spoke was Hausa, speaks volumes of what appears his sinister motive.  It sounded too close to conspiratorial grandstanding over the air waves to discredit the sitting government, to which Galadima is not exactly a friend. 

    But that’s alright.  If the Tinubu government has supporters, it must not gripe over opposers.  Supporters and opposers are integral parts of democracy.  Supporters eulogizing a government is no more an offence than bad-mouthing it by opponents.

    Still, the Galadima take is queer because of its ringing illogic, which again should sound strange, even to the northern masses, whose mind Galadima was clearly trying to poison.

    Pray, who does falling food prices hurt?  The northern “Talakawas” that need cheap food to make life more livable?  Or the rich that would spend even less on food, while sinking their excess money into more earthly comfort?  Who?

    It’s that welcome juncture, where reasonable people think the inflationary crisis might just be coming to an end — good news.  Yet, that’s what seem to incense Galadima, as he weighed in with his toxic politics.

    Galadima has a right to play whatever politics he likes, no matter how senseless.  Still, his illogical take — ease on food prices as anti-northern conspiracy — is likely to make him the butt of jokes, even among the northern masses he is trying to hoodwink. 

    Such silly politicking would bury, with contempt, Galadima and his views.  But his choice!

  • Now that Kanu has a new judge

    Now that Kanu has a new judge

    Detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu must be feeling victorious following the reassignment of his trial to another judge based on his demand.  He had declared dramatically in court on February 10 that the decision of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to return his case to Justice Binta Nyako was “unacceptable.”

    His lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, in a statement on March 8, said the defence team had “received two separate official letters regarding his case,” describing the letters as “momentous.”  He stated that one letter was from the Chief Justice of Nigeria “responding to a recent letter we had written to her, seeking her prompt administrative intervention (as the administrative head of the Nigerian judiciary) on the matter of a proper and lawful reassignment of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s case, following the recusal of the judge that was conducting it.” The other letter, he said, was from the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, “informing us that the case has been reassigned to another judge of the Federal High Court.”

    Kanu was first arrested in October 2015 and granted bail in April 2017 in the course of his trial for “alleged offences of conspiracy to commit acts of treasonable felony and other related offences.” His group is known for using terroristic methods in its fight for an independent “Biafra land” made up of Nigeria’s five Southeast states and parts of the South-south geo-political zone.

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     He fled the country in September 2017 following “Operation Python Dance,” a military exercise in the Southeast during which “rampaging soldiers” allegedly invaded his house in Afara-Ukwu Ibeku, Umuahia, Abia State. He was re-arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in June 2021, about four years after he mysteriously disappeared from the country. 

    Kanu remains lawfully detained, contrary to his oft-repeated claim that his detention is unlawful.  The Supreme Court had reversed his acquittal and the order for his release by the Court of Appeal.

    It is noteworthy that two other judges were previously recused from the case. Now that he has his wish, he needs to understand that there is a limit to demanding a judge’s recusal. How many judges could he reject, assuming he were allowed to? 

    His conduct suggests that he believes he has the right to decide which judge should try him. Indeed, his letter to the authorities, dated January 30, 2025, seeking that his case be moved to the Southeast, ahead of the continuation of his trial in February, demonstrated his unrealistic sense of entitlement. Is it possible that he believes he would receive a favourable judgment in the Southeast? He needs to be reminded that he is facing a trial, and he is not in charge.

  • The Abachas bay

    The Abachas bay

    The Abacha family are baying for IBB’s blood, for his claim that Sani Abacha and dark forces annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which Bashorun MKO Abiola won.  Abacha tossed MKO into jail from which he never came out alive.

    In their tiff with IBB to defend their late father’s “honour”, the Abachas spoke loosely of “virtues” — of “honesty, sincerity and integrity”!  O my!  Did their brute of a father have any honour?

    Can a brutal thief, whose sleaze still assails our nostril as the notorious “Abacha loot” — the worst public graft in Nigerian history — be said to have “honesty, sincerity and integrity” that these fellows glibly link to their paterfamilias’ blasted memory?

    Did they even remember how Nigerians danced and sang, in unbridled joy, and hailed the “divine intervention” that took that monster away, so that Nigeria could reclaim its soul from that brutal and greedy thief?

    Do they even know how many lives Abacha and his goons despatched to the great beyond, on Lagos streets, for protesting the restoration of MKO’s mandate — a crime Abacha himself apologized for shortly after? What of the hundreds of others he killed for his vice-hold on dirty power, after he shoved off Ernest Shonekan, another pitiable historical wimp?

    No one could bring Abacha to book because it was an Army of “anything goes”, as attested to by General Salihu Ibrahim, who was retired as Army chief of staff, so Abacha could have a field day for his bare-faced thievery and sundry crimes.

    Okay, IBB annulled June 12 — damn him too and no tears from here!  That was an abominable crime that will continue to plague the generations to come of everyone involved, as the Abachas are finding out.

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    But did IBB also toss Abiola into jail, where he spent his entire presidential term? Didn’t the stark and greedy Abacha do that, and threw the jail keys away?

    Do the Abachas even know that the money “Home boy” Abacha stole, at executive gun point, have consigned millions of Nigerians into poverty, nay, penury, more so in their native North West, the second poorest geo-political zone of Nigeria?

    Honour!  Virtue!  What nonsense!  Abacha and these two concepts are parallel lines that would never meet, even if their thieving father comes back in 100 lifetimes! Honour!

    The Abachas should bury their heads in shame for having such a cold-blooded thief as family head.  They should lug their burden in quiet but torturous shame!  Yet, they bay for blood!  

    They should count themselves lucky that Nigerians are very forgetful and forgiving.  Otherwise no one would have tolerated their fancy release claiming honour for a fellow absolutely bereft of one.

    Still, the IBB/Abacha brickbat is a reminder that military rule is absolute catastrophe, that propels the worst to sit in judgment over their betters.  It’s the power illogic of booming guns!  That’s the blasted Abacha memory which Nigerians will never forget. 

    Abacha and honour?  What a laugh!

  • Overkill

    Overkill

    It is thought-provoking that two rape cases in Kaduna State ended with the rapists sentenced to castration and death by hanging. The Commissioner, Ministry of Human Services and Social Development, Hajiya Rabi Salisu, on March 5, told journalists that the ministry had secured a conviction on June 7, 2024 “wherein the defendant was convicted in a two counts charge of rape and incest under Section 258 1 of the Penal Code Law 2017 as amended and sentenced to death by hanging and surgical castration.”

    She said the ministry also secured a conviction on February 6, 2025 “wherein the defendant was convicted on a 2 counts charge of rape under Section 258 1 of the Penal Code Law 2017 as amended and sentenced to death by hanging and surgical castration.”

    She did not provide further details. The death penalty and castration are very extreme punishments for rape and are very controversial. Indeed, critics argue that they are “sensational measures.” Kaduna State had amended its laws to prescribe both punishments.

    However, the commissioner also said the ministry secured another conviction on February 24, 2025 “wherein the defendant was convicted on a 2 counts charge of rape under Section 258 of the Penal Code Law and sentenced to life imprisonment.”  It is unclear why the punishment was different in this case. Life imprisonment is not as severe as castration and death by hanging.

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    Rape is regarded as violence against women, and it is a crime under Nigerian Law. It is defined as forcible unlawful sexual intercourse without a woman’s consent. Section 357 of the Criminal Code reads: “Any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or girl, without her consent, or with her consent, if consent is obtained by force or by means of threat or intimidation of any kind, or by fear of harm, or by any means of false and fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act, or in the case of a married woman, by personating her husband is guilty of an offence called rape.” The punishment for rape under section 358 is life imprisonment.

    Rape is said to be one of the most prevalent human rights violations in Nigeria. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) notably received 11,200 reported cases of rape in 2020.

    According to a report by Amnesty International, despite the Nigerian authorities’ declaration of a “state of emergency” on sexual and gender-based violence, rape persists at crisis levels with most survivors denied justice, rapists avoiding prosecution, and hundreds of cases of rape going unreported due to pervasive corruption, stigma and victim blaming.

    However, even in the context of justice, castration and death by hanging in the Kaduna State rape cases may well be overkill. 

  • Bode talks the talk

    Bode talks the talk

    Old man and old soldier, Chief Olabode George, retired Navy Commodore but hardly tired political warhorse, is talking the talk. He is shedding buckets of tears for Siminalayi Fubara, the Rivers governor who just got cut to size for his childish approach to governance.

    Or how would you describe a politically conscious adult who spends public money without parliamentary appropriation, in a democracy, and feels things would end well?

    Like the late Chief Edwin Clark, another old man that goaded Fubara into infamy but is now comfortably dead for the living Fubara to carry his can, George is now playing the emotive card.  Fubara would listen to him at his peril!

    George claims the Supreme Court verdict that cuts off funding to Rivers, until Fubara submits his budget estimates for proper appropriation, was cruel.  How so?

    Still, before even delving into his take, you could see the bounding hypocrisy in that statement. 

    When President Olusegun Obasanjo was busy playing the emperor and seizing Lagos council funds, what was George’s take?

    Even when the Supreme Court told him he had absolutely no right to do that, and he still held on to the money, didn’t George, esprit de corps, lionize that brazen illegality?  As virtual “garrison” viceroy, in the futile bid to “capture Lagos” (his very own words), didn’t he rally for that brazen illegality, as PDP deputy national chairman (South), and storied “Lagos boy”?

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    But this Rivers case is even a far cry from the Obasanjo-era in-your-face presidential outlawry.  For two years running now, Fubara has been spending public money without appropriation.  Does he even know that is No. 1 crime in a democracy? 

    Does George also know that?  Or does he think as the IBB/Abacha military was an “army of anything goes”, this democracy is also an era of “ anything goes”? Come on!

    Governors — as other elected officials — are created by law.  The moment they hoist themselves above the law, they get what’s coming their way!  That’s the Fubara cross.

    Old man George wailed about how the Supreme Court judges would have felt if they didn’t receive their salaries — more tears!  But what has that — emotive appeal to pity — got to do with anything?  Doesn’t due process shape everything in a democracy?

    If George — as the late Clark — had played dutiful elderly roles and correctly advised Fubara to fight smart and not fight dumb, by not committing such open democratic crime as spending unappropriated money, would things have got to this terrible pass? Instead, all of them jumped on the partisan lane and couldn’t even see Fubara bathe himself with petrol and giddily urge his foes to light a fire!

    The Rivers situation is already bad enough as it is.  George and co should advise Fubara to correct his reckless ways — no matter his grievances — and not gift his foes free ammo to bomb him.

    Shedding crocodile tears and traducing judges who did their duty by law won’t help Fubara.  Pulling his ears to do the right thing would.

  • Bomb for Badenoch

    Bomb for Badenoch

    Leader of United Kingdom’s opposition with Nigerian roots, Kemi Badenoch, got a taste of the inherent limitation of nativity transplant last week. She was mocked by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as having appointed herself saviour of Western civilisation in desperate search for relevance. It was an underhand. And the message: no mater how hard you fight to belong in an adopted society, you can’t belong more – nor even as well – as the natives as to obliterate your own true origin.

    Badenoch is the leader of UK’s Conservative Party, which makes her effectively the shadow premier and locates her only an election away from the possibility of taking the reins. But she is controversial for her hardline stance in defence of British and, by extension, Western interests. She is notorious for talking down on Nigeria and repudiating her ancestral roots. She’s against payment of reparations to African nations by Britain and other colonial powers. She defends the British society against charges of racism and is seen by those who daily experience the ill as a  tool in the hands of racist Britain to gaslight their concerns by conveying racism without having to deal with the baggage of being labelled racist, since the rhetoric has been outsourced to a Black person. Recently, she proposed prolonging years of residency required before anyone seeking British citizenship could qualify. In short, she’s been more conservatively British than ancestral Britons.

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    At the Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQ) time in the Commons, she sparred with Starmer on proposed increase in Britain’s defence budget. Speaking ahead of his visit to Washington to parley with US President Donald Trump, who has been pressing European leaders to increase their defence spending, Starmer announced that the UK will reallocate aid funds to boost military spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027, amounting to £13.4billion. Badenoch questioned him on the exact amount that Defence Secretary John Healey said could be calculated as £6billion when inflation is factored in, to which the prime minister responded with a retort.

    Upon Starmer’s pitch, Badenoch suggested he took her advice on using international aid money for defence. “Over the weekend, I suggested to the prime minister that he cut the aid budget, and I am pleased that he accepted my advice. It’s the fastest response I’ve ever had from (him),” she said. In reply, the prime minister was subtly but brutally dismissive: “I’m going to have to let the leader of the opposition down gently… She didn’t feature in my thinking at all. I was so busy over the weekend I didn’t even see her proposal,” he said, adding: “She’s appointed herself saviour of the western civilisation in a desperate search for relevance.”

    Starmer has held British knighthood since 2014, even before he entered parliament. You could guess where he’s coming from with Badenoch’s alleged self-appointment as saviour of western civilisation. Cheeky nationalism!

  • Zoo issues at OAU

    Zoo issues at OAU

    It is lamentable that a year after the tragic incident in which a zookeeper, Olabode Olawuyi, was attacked and killed by a lion at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, the university management has not released an official report on the tragedy. 

    According to the chairman of the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), OAU, Matthew Oluwaniyi, “Regrettably, despite marking the first anniversary of his passing, we are yet to receive the official report on the circumstances surrounding his death.” He said this at a workshop to mark the first anniversary of Olawuyi’s death. The event was held at the university and focused on “Workplace Safety Awareness.”

    Importantly, he also said: “This workshop is more than just an event. It is a reminder that safety is not just a conversation but a responsibility. We must ensure that the lessons from Comrade Olawuyi’s sacrifice lead to improved policies, better protective measures, and a workplace where no staff member feels unsafe in the line of duty.”

    Olawuyi, a veterinary technologist, had been in charge of the zoological garden at the university for over a decade before his death on February 19, 2024 after he was attacked by a nine-year-old male lion. He was said to have been in his fifties and in charge of wildlife care and health, and also provided research assistance. The lion was put down. 

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    At the time, Oluwaniyi had described Olawuyi as “a hero,” adding, “he died while trying to rescue the person who was initially attacked by the lion. He gave his life to rescue his subordinate whom he was supervising.” The university’s vice-chancellor, Prof. Adebayo Simeon Bamire, ordered “a comprehensive investigation into the immediate and remote causes of the incident.” The state of the investigation is unclear.

    The sad incident called for a review of zoo security at the university.  The institution needed to ensure that its zoo is a secure and safe environment for both animals and people, including zookeepers and visitors. Such a review was expected to include rethinking the zoo’s enclosures, retraining the zookeepers to prevent the danger of complacency, and paying greater attention to proper feeding and care of the animals in the zoo. 

    The delay in releasing an official report on the tragedy based on the ordered investigation suggests that the university management has not treated the matter with the appropriate seriousness. This is a dishonour to the zookeeper who lost his life in such horrific circumstances while on duty. 

  • Bandit diplomacy

    Bandit diplomacy

    It was framed as a glorious(?) occasion, cresting in a press conference to announce a “deal” — to Donald Trump, everything is a deal — for Ukraine to sign off a chunk of its rich minerals, as “gratitude” for America’s past support; and “guarantee” for future security, so long as Trump and co could sink their snout into Ukraine’s wealth.

    But it ended as a shooting bout, in which Donald Trump and his Vice — and trust Hardball, that one is a real vice! — J. D. Vance, tried to bully President Volodymyr Zelensky into submission.  Big mistake! 

    Zelensky held his own against America’s Top 2; and it all ended in a frightful stalemate — that sounded like a loss to the bully, and a win to the bullied!  Moral victory, military peril?  Ha!

    Still, that message seemed clear — and only America’s MAGA fanatics appear not to have got it — that if Donald Trump could bully Americans into re-electing him, he couldn’t bully the rest of the world into some sort of stupor.

    That Zelensky stood up to Trump and Vance, right there on their home turf in the White House, symbolized some outrage against the regnant gracelessness of Trump’s America!

    Across the Atlantic, on the British Isles, tempers ran riot — but not against underdog Zelensky.  To Trump’s appeal to fear — that Kyiv was “gambling with World War 3” — British Conservative and Shadow Secretary for Justice, Robert Jenrick — huffed that Winston Churchill, World War 2 hero, whose bust adorns the Oval Office where the spat took place, would be “turning in his grave.”

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    That laconic put down, perhaps only the British could manage in English! With sparse verbiage, Jenrick contrasted Churchill to Trump.  Churchill spurned the conventional folly of his day to appease Hitler, called Hitler’s bluff and spurred global opposition to his bullying.  Now,  Trump tries to appease Vladimir Putin at Ukraine’s expense.

    Why, even Kemi Badenoch took a leave from her favourite pastime of kicking Nigeria to roast Putin.  She reminded all that the “villain is the war criminal, President Putin, who illegally invaded another sovereign country — Ukraine.”  Trump, in one of his reflex lies, had told the world that Ukraine — which Russia invaded — started the war, only to claim he didn’t remember ever saying that!

    Ed Davey, the Liberal Democratic leader, was even more ruthless.  He called trying to bully Zelensky “thuggery from Trump and Vance, plain and simple”!  To underscore Trump and co — powerful they might be — might be on their own, Zelensky received a carnival-like hero’s welcome in Britain on Saturday.

    Indeed, it’s the ugly face of America’s new bandit diplomacy — or how else do you explain Trump schmoozing with the aggressor, pressuring the victim to a so-called “peace”; and ogling Ukraine’s mineral wealth as “guarantee” for a future peace?  Stark!

    Yet, that’s America’s new conventional wisdom — but clear folly to many others across the globe.  Trump believes might is right.  But it’s doubtful if he can drag the traditional western alliance with him in what the new German Chancellor calls the “new infamy”.

    Interesting times!