24 February—First things first, just to be pedantic. The surname Putin (Путин) is probably derived from puti (пути), meaning path or way; it may mean traveler in some sense. In all events, it’s not related to puta, the Spanish word for whore.

I’ve been referring to Vladimir Putin as Vladimir Putrid in private conversation over a quarter-century and in the circumstance I see no reason not to Putrify Vlad in public. So henceforth the bugger will be Vladimir Putrid. Not that he’d care if he knew. He’s supposed to be one of the richest men in the world, with an ill-gotten fortune estimated at about $200 billion. And now Putrid is unquestionably the most powerful man in the world. (I use the masculine gender only because that’s how it is.)

Yesterday, Donald Trump of hopefully cursed memory, for his own narcissistic reasons, called Putrid “very savvy” and his decision to occupy separatist-held parts of Ukraine “genius.” Unfortunately, Trump is absolutely right.

Babe Ruth is said to have called a shot in the 1932 World Series. Ted Williams certainly called six of his own shots later on. And Vladimir Putrid has just done it again. In fact, he’s been doing it all along, telling the good guys just what he’s been intending to do, knowing full well that they—we—wouldn’t take him seriously because even he wouldn’t want to start a hot war. Yeah, right.

But the good guys seem not to realize that Putrid’s posturing has always been strategically shrewd and usually has proved to be a portent of things to come. Unlike Hitler, Putrid, while clearly driven by megalomaniacal territorial ambition, doesn’t let narcissistic self-gratification get in his way.

On the other hand, take the good guys. Please. Nobody likes hot wars except the military-industrial complex, as Eisenhower called it, and gung-ho glory boys. So Putrid got us simple-minded good guys to telegraph our brilliant strategy of words speaking louder than actions.

Vlad knew he had nothing to fear when his troops invaded whatever parts of Ukraine suited his fancy because we told him that we’d make him pay through the nose for his aggression with a highly coordinated response consisting of economic sanctions. Duh. Okay, maybe some ordnance given to Ukraine, too.

But do any of our good-guy military and policy wonks think for one minute that Putrid, with superior strategic foresight and flexibility, hasn’t planned for contingency after contingency? Even Joe Biden now admits that Putrid has started a “premeditated war.” And what can we do about it? Realistically.

Hitler skunked the world. And Hitler was nowhere near as smart as Putrid . . .

24 February, 2:30 pm—Addendum: I actually listened to Joe Biden’s speech. Waste of time and energy. Joe was late getting to it. Probably because his staff couldn’t wake him on time. A short, uninformative, somewhat disorderly press Q&A followed. Sanctions on biggest Russian banks and high-tech imports as part of a coordinated effort among the allies to penalize Putrid. Same old, same old bullshit. Make that chicken shit.

Putrid must be laughing so hard that he’s crying. Before you know it, the Russians will have hacked the allies’ most secure accounts as the first part of Putin’s threatened “consequences” for anyone who interfered with his little war. Come to think of it, it’s probably already been done.

Lotsa luck, good guys . . .