Yesterday when my son called around, he told me a story about Trump that I decided to verify. The story comes from Trump’s biographer in a book published about ten days ago and claims to know the real reason why Trump fell out with Epstein. According to this story, Trump was giving advice to Epstein on the purchase of a property and then with the aid of Russian oligarch money Trump went behind Epstein’s back and secured the property by out-bidding Epstein for it, Later the property was sold back at a huge profit to the same Russian oligarch and the whole deal seems like a money laundering operation. Epstein was furious with Trump and threaten to expose his entire knowledge of, and complicity in, the sex rackets that were Epstein’s stock-in-trade. Trump himself claims that he fell out with Epstein because the latter had poached young female ’employees’ from his Mar-a-Lago estate. Now all of this sounds incredibly murky and so far, the YouTube channels do not seem to have picked up on the story but I suspect that a flurry of lawyers and sworn affidavits are preventing some of the details from emerging. In the meanwhile, it appears that Trump is desperate to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize and for this reason is arranging a meeting in a week’s time between himself and Putin to ‘sort out’ the Ukraine. I am sure that much of the discussion revolves around the Donbas region which is a region in eastern Ukraine, historically and culturally part of Ukraine, but currently a significant portion is occupied by Russia and Russian-backed separatists. While the region is predominantly Russian-speaking and has a history of pro-Russian sentiment, it is not part of Russia. I think that the Ukrainian president could have a formula for handling this problem. As the region thinks of itself as culturally and linguistically a part of Russia why not offer the region a referendum in which there are two deals on offer. The first would be a massive degree of autonomy and self-determination but still remaining a region with the existing Ukrainian borders. The other possibility is that the region votes to secede and join Russia and the Ukrainians, as good democrats, could respect the result. I have not seen any solution like this suggested in the media but it might be a way forward. As I write Trump is talking about the ‘swapping’ of territories but as the Ukraine is not occupying any Russian territory to speak of, there is nothing to swap so this is another example of Trump ‘moonshine’ talk. The day started off bright and clear with the prospect of fine weather. Apart from meeting up with some of my ‘Wetherspoons’ friends it may be that if the spirit moves me I do either some outside gardening or a car washing job. With all of the building work going on around, the car appears perpetually dirty with a fine sprinkling of dust but I am evolving techniques to get the car washed with the minimum of effort these days.
In the morning after breakfast, I walked down into town picking up my newspaper and one or two things from Waitrose before meeting up with my Saturday morning friends in Wetherspoons. We were joined by my University of Birmingham friend who I normally see each Sunday morning but he had sought me out because he is otherwise engaged this week. We had a long and interesting chat and after my friend had left, I moved to a different part of the pub where another of my friends – Seasoned World Traveller – generally takes up residence. We had an interesting chat on health-related issues (what else?) and then I wandered slowly down the High Street where I needed to purchase some cosmetic items which I did from a couple of stores. Then I made my way quite slowly up the hill as it was quite a hot and humid walk after which I had a cold drink and a good rest when I got home. This afternoon, I have a real cultural dilemma because BBC2 were showing the film, Dr. Zhivago which was the favourite film of Meg and I (not least because when Meg wore her Russian style hat, she had a passing resemblance to Geraldine Chapman who played the part of Tonya) As it is three months today since Meg died, I honestly could not bring myself to watch it although we must have seen it a dozen times over the years. We first saw it in a Leicester Square cinema in 1967 just before we got married so we are going back some 58 years. I did allow myself a little peek towards the end of the film, though, and saw one of the most poignant moments in the film. Throughout the film Zhivago is torn between the blonde Lara and the brunette Tonia and is eventually separated by the events of war from them both But whilst on a Moscow tram, Zhivago thinks that he sees one of his lifelong loves, Lara, walking along a Moscow Street. Zhivago struggles to get off the tram but his heart is in a poor condition and whilst racing to catch up with one of the loves of his life, whilst about 100 yards short or less of catching up with Lara, the exertion of his running gives him a massive heart attack from which he died, with Lara walking ahead unaware of the drama unfolding behind her. If you wanted to be moralistic, you could say that is what happens when middle aged men are having relationships with two women at about the same time and he only got his just desserts. But the relationships with both women were deep and intense and the poignancy remains, for me at least. On a somewhat personal note, Omar Sharif who played the part of Zhivago was a bridge player of international renown and I seem to remember a story that an aunt Dorothy of mine who I only met on or two occasions might have played in a bridge match with him.
Later on in the day, I will attend the Saturday evening church service which is perhaps more than appropriate as it is three months to the day since Meg left us. Our priest is shortly to leave us to return to India and I look forward to his replacement who is a much younger man and currently based in Coventry, although my spies tell me that he has already made a couple of visits to our church to become acquainted with it.