The Secret To Surviving
Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler is a novel. What takes a prose writer 300 pages to say, he nails down in three minutes.1
I’d love to know the back story of the characters. If the gambler’s so wise, why doesn’t he have his own whiskey and smokes? Why is he so down on his luck, bumming off other people?
I think it’s this: the gambler always uses other people’s money.
SMART.
That’s one thing ole Kenny (or Don, see link) didn’t fit into the song—gamble with other people’s money, not your own. This is the essence of American capitalism. A Very Shrewd Operator once told me, “All great fortunes are made with other people’s money.”
I was such a naif, I was shocked. You mean, you don’t work hard and save your money and plow it into some great dream? No, you borrow, indemnify, profit if it pays off, and walk away from the smoking ruin if it fails.
Still, it’s a great song.
These are the most famous lines from the song:
You got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
But for my money (my own, not someone else’s, alas), these are the lines that make the song:
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealing's done
I wonder if Zelensky knows that it’s time to fold ‘em and walk away. I think he’s out of aces.
Or is he?
Does he have kompromat on Biden? Is the President of the United States being blackmailed into dumping endless resources into a losing fight? Just a question.
Andriy Melnyk, the endlessly complaining, whining, hectoring, bitching and moaning Ukrainian ambassador to Germany has finally crossed a line.
It’s been a huge scandal in Germany, Poland, and Israel. Hardly a peep here.
Yes, I think Goldman is a repellent character and I disagree with him fundamentally about many things but what can you do during these crazy times—he’s a good source of gossip type information. (It’s where his opinions start, especially about gun control in the wake of the Highland Park massacre that I check out of Goldman Hotel.)
This should be no shock.
Reportedly Melnyk is going to be recalled, but it seems to me that’s he’s simply going to be kicked upstairs. No one in Ukraine really disagrees with him.
Oh wait, there was a peep, in the Washington Post.
Andreas Kluth in Ukraine Has Better Heroes Than This Friend of Fascism deftly captures in a few sentences the rotten essence of Bandera but the article adds up to this bullshit rationalization: “It wasn’t a good showing, especially for a professional diplomat…”
Really, sir, is that the best you can do? Let’s delve a little deeper. Maybe Melnyk speaks for more Ukrainians than you care to admit. Maybe they—even the ones who know the truth— think that Bandera was their guy and they don’t really care how many “others” his gang members slaughtered.
Nor does Mr. Kluth tell us these “Better Heroes” are.
Try as I might, I can’t find them. Somewhere in my haphazard reading, I did discover a Ukrainian nationalist of the 1920s who was a decent fellow, but dammit, I can’t recreate my steps and find the article. When I do, I’ll post it.
I remember him because he became a Bolshevik.
OK! He didn’t write it. But who would listen to the song if Kenny hadn’t sung it? In the performing arts, the performer and the performance are ALL.