Who is the Real Volodymyr Zelenskyy?

Hero, Schmuck, Kleptocratic Grifter, or Schnorrer?

I never fail to be amused by people who are passionately pro-Zelenskyy and Ukraine despite being utterly clueless about how and why the current Russo-Ukrainian War started. Most of the Cocaine Cowboy of Kiev’s fans could not find Ukraine on a map.

So, let’s take a brief look at the glorious defender of not only Ukraine but global democracy. You should know that Volodymyr has already sent, according to the best estimates, somewhere between 600K to 1M of his countrymen to their deaths. The Russians have an estimated 100K to 125K KIA. To arrive at an estimate of the wounded, just multiply the KIA estimates by 3X. (By the way, this is an example of what progressives call “Male Privilege.”)

So, Americans Really Should be Grateful to This “Hero” for Keeping Us All Safe and Free, Right?

Well, not really, since Zelenskyy comes off far more as a psychopathic genocider of his people, a disastrous leader, and a kleptocrat whose net worth is estimated to have risen, coincidentally, into the hundreds of millions over the course of this war. The head of the CIA under Biden had to ask him twice to reduce his personal skim off the money sent to him by the USA and NATO countries.

The King of Schnorrers

After college, I went through a period where my reading consisted almost exclusively of Yiddish/Jewish authors such as Bernard Malamud, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Mordecai Richler. The latter introduced me to a wonderful Yiddish word: schnorrer. This is an entitled schmuck who is convinced that your money is his.

Schnorrer is a Yiddish pejorative term for a beggar who, unlike ordinary beggars, presents himself as respectable and feels entitled for the alms received

Here are a few examples of Yiddish stories about schnorrers:

The Schnorrer begged the Baron for some money for a journey to Ostend as his doctor had recommended sea-bathing for his troubles. The Baron thought Ostend was a particularly expensive resort; a cheaper one would do equally well. The Schnorrer, however, rejected the proposal with the words: “Herr Baron, I consider nothing too expensive for my health.”

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In a different scenario, a schnorrer is outraged to hear that his wealthy patron has halved his annual allowance. The patron explains that his son has married a woman with expensive tastes. The schnorrer retorts, “He can marry who he wants, just not with my money.”

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A schnorrer had appeared at a rich man’s house every Friday for years for the Sabbath meal. One Friday, a young man appeared with the schnorrer. The host was put out by this. “Who is this?” he asked. “I should have told you,” said the schnorrer. “It’s my new son-in-law. I promised him board for the first year of his marriage.”

Zelensky is a true schnorrer. By many accounts he is seen as a nuisance by the Europeans he is constantly nagging for more funding and support. It’s not hard to believe.

But Didn’t Russia Launch a Full-scale and Unprovoked Invasion of Ukraine in Early 2022?

Zelenskyy had an opportunity within a week of the launch of Russia’s SMO back in February 2022 to stop the fighting and bloodshed. The sole purpose of the SMO incursion was to get Zelenskyy’s undivided attention about Russia’s Final Redline over Ukraine joining NATO. President Putin’s offer to hug it out Ari Gold-style was quickly accepted by Zelenskyy.

By the way, only liars call the SMO a full-scale and unjustified invasion. You do not send a small force of 90K troops into a country defended by 500K regular military personnel and another 200K reservists if your goal is to conquer it.

So, what happened with the peace talks of March 2022? Well, the West quickly sent Boris Johnson to Kiev to twist the regime’s arm into fighting instead. This was backed up by empty promises of limitless support including funding, military intelligence, modern weapons systems, and, of course, munitions.

All the promised game-changers proved to be duds because—wait for it!—Ukraine never had a hope in hell of winning once Putin escalated the dispute from an SMO into an actual war.

Why Didn’t This War End After the Disastrous Summer Offensive of 2023?

Well, it really should have. Here’s my guess as to why it was allowed to continue. Even after the dismal failure of this long awaited counter-offensive, the Cocaine Cowboy of Kiev and his cronies simply didn’t want to lose their gravy train. After all, they were getting richer by the day skimming the cash and reselling military equipment to other bad players around the globe, including Mexican Drug Cartels.

Then, as conditions continued to worsen in 2024, they recognized that they were “dead-men walking.” If they dared to surrender, those directly under them would most likely do what the Libyans did with Qaddafi.

Finally, keep in mind, that Zelensky had shown no hesitation in trying to escalate the war to where the USA and its NATO poodles would be forced to join him. It’s a good thing that Putin had enough sense to not over-react and wait for President Trump to return.

The best thing Trump can do is cut Zelenskyy and his band of kleptocrats loose. This is and always will be seen as Biden’s War.

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For the record, I have no dog in this fight. I could not tell a Russian from a Ukrainian if you held a gun to my head. However, as someone who’s been following wars and geopolitics for over 50 years, I can see who started this totally unnecessary war which has killed close to 1M men and done almost as much damage to Ukraine as Herr Hitler ever did.

The silver lining to this tragic war is that we now have a president who understands the complete waste of money it is keeping tens of thousands of US troops in Germany in order to protect NATO members who are all deadbeats and schnorrers themselves.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, “Pull that plug out, Mr President! Pull that plug out!”

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SMO : Special Military Operation