Sunday night was the 97th presentation of the Academy Awards. The big winner of the evening was Anora, which captured five Oscars, including Best Picture.  The event was lacking, however, for there was no Kabuki Theater award.  That statue for Best Kabuki Performance would surely have gone to Volodymyr Zelensky for his portrayal of a national leader with his nation’s best interests, supposedly, at heart.

But if Zelensky was the puppet, who was pulling the strings?  I believe that it was the Democrat party.  Since his inauguration on January 20, Donald Trump has done nothing but win, win, win.  His achievements have been so rapid and spectacular that the poor Democrats’ collective heads are spinning.  The loyal (not really) opposition had to do something to slow his progress, at least in their own lying eyes.

According to the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway, the Democrats, led by Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), former Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice, former Biden secretary of State Antony Blinken, and disgraced former lieutenant colonel Alexander Vindman, convinced Zelensky not to accept Trump’s generous deal.

Rice, a much better denier than she was adviser, denied that any such discussion ever took place.  I’m more inclined to believe Hemingway.  As far as I know, Mollie has never gone on three Sunday morning news talk shows and brazenly lied to the American public by claiming that a YouTube video was responsible for the Benghazi embassy riot that claimed the life of American ambassador Chris Stevens.  I have heard no denials from the other three Dems.  I guess they were leaving the denials to the pro in their midst.

The oval kerfuffle resulted in obvious reactions from the Democrats, and even a few RINOs, such as former Republican rep. Adam Kinzinger, who said, “Trump is too much of a coward to say a bad thing to Putin, yet he dares lecture Zelensky?  Russia is on the verge of collapse, and Trump/Vance are desperate to save them.”  But former Zelensky ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) declared he was proud of Trump and Vance and condemned Zelensky for insulting our leaders in the hallowed presidential office.

The Democrats may have believed for a while that they had slowed, if not derailed, the Trump train.  But Victor Davis Hanson tore them apart with his opinion on the matter.  Hanson declared that the Ukrainian dictator boxed himself and his country into a no-win situation with his petulant display.

If Zelensky still wants the deal, he will have to dine on crow and humble pie rather than the sumptuous lunch he might have had on Friday, and he will have to make a public apology to the American people.  He not only wants the deal, but desperately needs it.  The Europeans are not going to save his thin skin.  He definitely will not get the American boots on the ground that he has been maneuvering for.  He will have to return to the bargaining table a chastened man.

The late Jim Croce said it best.  “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don’t mess around with Trump.”  (A slight alteration in the last line of the song tells it like it is.)

I haven’t seen Anora.  Maybe when it gets to Netflix I’ll waste a couple of hours and watch.  I’m certain, though, that it will not be as entertaining as the show put on this past Friday by President Trump and Vice President Vance, aided ineptly by Volodymyr Zelensky. 

Bill Hansmann is a dentist and dental educator with over fifty years in the profession.  He continues to teach and write political blogs and semi-mediocre novels while living with his wife and cats in Georgia.

Image: Volodymyr Zelensky.  Credit: Raw Pixel.