My main interest in Ukraine, months before Putin invaded, was its prime farmland. Ukraine has soil equal to our best farms in Iowa and Illinois. The productivity of this great soil is the reason Ukraine has been known as the “Breadbasket of Europe.”
You know that not all farmland is the same. That’s why a farm in Iowa can sell for $20,000 an acre and a farm with rocky, less productive soil is worth only $2000 an acre.
When we consider only the very best prime farmland in the world, we have roughly 20% of it, and Ukraine and Russia each have about 20%. Here is my question about Putin’s attempt to take over Ukraine: Do we want to let Putin control 40% of the best farmland in the world?
That brings me down to the meeting in the White House on Friday. Your opinion of the kerfuffle between Trump and Zelenskyy in the few minutes at the end of a 40-minute press conference is probably influenced by which news outlet you watch or read. Totally opposite views. It’s like one person standing in front of a Palomino horse admiring its beautiful mane and disposition, while another person is focused on the opposite end of a donkey.
Zelenskyy was not well prepared to meet President Trump. Before a public meeting, Zelenskyy should have asked, in private, this question: “How much of my country are you willing to give to the invader Putin?”
I don’t know what answer Trump would give. But any answer above zero would be unacceptable to Ukrainians. Zelenskyy could have followed up with this plea, “Putin already stole Crimea in 2014. He can keep it. But he has to leave 100% of our country he has occupied in 3 years, and pay for a good chunk of the damages. And return all the children he stole in the early months of the invasion. I am eternally grateful for the tremendous support from all Americans in defending our freedom. And I humbly ask for your help in negotiating with Putin to achieve these goals.”
I would like to see Trump’s reaction to that. And Putin’s.
The Academy Awards are on ABC tonight. In 1934, the Master of Ceremonies for the big dinner celebration was Will Rogers. Based on his notes, here are three comments in the opening monologue:
“(These statuettes) are lovely things. They were originally designed for prizes at a nudist’s colony bazaar, but they didn’t take ‘em. It must be terribly artistic, for nobody has any idea what it is. It represents the triumph of nothingness over the stupendousness of zero…
There is great acting in this room tonight, greater than you will see on the screen. We all cheer when somebody gets a prize that everyone of us in the house knows should be ours. Yet we smile and take it. Boy that’s acting! ….
I have never seen any of these pictures. They don’t look at mine and why should I go see theirs.” (Note that by 1934, Will was the highest-paid and most popular actor in Hollywood, yet he was never nominated for an Oscar.)
Will messed up announcing the best Director award. He casually announced, “Come up and get it, Frank!” But there were two nominees named Frank. Frank Capra started walking to the front when Will realized his mistake and clarified the winner was Frank Lloyd for Cavalcade, (which also was the Best Picture). There have been worse blunders in the 90 years since.