☕️ SLAVA POLYCRISIS ☙ Thursday, November 20, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Trump did it again: he recaptured the news cycle from endless Epstein analysis, with a global power play nobody saw coming. A C&C special edition.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Thursday! At certain key times during the pandemic, my roundups were co-opted by breaking news. But unscheduled interruptions are becoming a regular feature of the second Trump Administration. I recline on my pillow musing about one thing, and then wake up to discover a whole new landscape of historic happenings. This morning was the latest example. No sooner had I brewed my first cup of coffee and sat down to blog than an avalanche of news of Trump’s latest strategic surprise sloshed across the editorial screens. In short, Trump has jammed Zelensky into a high-school locker, nobody saw it coming, and everyone is wailing about it. A special Proxy War edition.

🌍 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🌍

🚀 🚀 🚀

“We finally appear to be approaching an inflection point. It’s a big moment.” The Hill ran a surprising story late last night, simply headlined, “Trump’s surprise 28-point Ukraine peace plan.” Surprise! The man has been working. And Trump’s team is not leaking. The Europeans did not know the plan: “Witkoff’s back-channel push on Ukraine alarms allies,” Politico’s headline blared. Even Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) didn’t know the plan: “Likewise, Ukraine’s top supporters in Congress appeared to be in the dark,” the Hill said. The mission is moving fast and silently, like Seal Team Six. Trump is preparing to end the Proxy War.

The Proxy War has been a regular feature of American life for the last four years. “Slava Ukraini,” Ukraine’s corruptocratic slaves kept saying —whatever that means; speak English, morons— while gushing taxpayers’ money and machines toward Eastern Europe as fast as Paypal could handle without exceeding daily government limits. U.S. corporate media parroted military propaganda as slavishly as if it were our own war. Biden built a secret bunker in Germany packed with our most diverse US generals, helping Ukraine lose the war at every step of the way. (Sorry!)

Last year, Trump ran on a platform of ending the war. Upon taking office, he tanked the money trains and shrank the weapons shipments. He tried settling things the easy way. He met with Zelensky. He met with Putin. Witkoff, Rubio, and General Kellogg held even more meetings. But it wasn’t going anywhere. The two biggest obstacles were an unfunny former comedian whose presidential term expired over a year ago, and Western Europe.

Last week, media was ambushed by a Ukrainian (but US-controlled) “anti-corruption agency,” NABU, which chased a bunch of top officials out of the war-torn country, including Zelensky’s best friend and longtime business partner, affectionately known as “Zelensky’s wallet.” He fled to a non-extradition country (Israel). It rocked Zelensky’s regime. Just three days ago, the Economist said the scandal “marks his biggest crisis since the invasion.”

Then yesterday, the headlines re-exploded like a Disney fireworks extravaganza. Everything happened all at once. It’s what the psyoperators lovingly call a “polycrisis,” which is kind of like when you’ve almost beaten back the Gremlins invasion, and then Alien and Predator arrive.

🚀 Even more ministers have resigned and/or fled, like cockroaches scattering when you turn the shed lights on. One of them —Kyiv’s former Defense Minister— was rumored to have scurried to the U.S., asked for asylum, and offered to cooperate with the feds. EurAsia Daily, three days ago:

That rumor was reported by a Ukrainian member of parliament, which shows you they’re nervous as Bulgarian goats at a timber wolf appreciation festival.

One wonders, idly, whether Zelensky will have any government left at all.

Then things got worse. Two days ago, as if from nowhere, calls appeared for Zelensky’s right-hand man Andriy Yermak (or Ermak) to be sacked. “Ukrainian lawmakers have called for Zelenskyy to sack his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak,” Radio Free Europe reported. “Zelensky’s Top Aide Yermak Could Be Sacked Thursday, Lawmaker Claims,” the Kyiv Post headlined on Tuesday.

Now, this Yermak character is key. If Timur Mindich, the Sweatshirt’s former business partner who fled to Israel last week, was “Zelensky’s wallet,” then Andriy Yermak is Zelensky’s brain. “Yermak is his top aide, his chief administrator, the main button on Zelenskyy’s control panel. They’ve become fused together like Siamese twins,” a Kyiv-based political studies professor explained. A Zelensky ally told Radio Free Europe that dismissing Yermak would be “like chopping off his own right hand.” Or an even more sensitive body part.

The Kyiv Post called Yermak “the second-most influential person in Ukraine.” It’s fair to say Ukrainians believe the country’s real decision-maker is Andriy Yermak, not the comedian.

Zelensky is so dependent on Yermak that —I am not making this up— it is widely reported the two men often sleep together in the same room. Since I don’t know Ukrainian, and must rely on bland translations, I can’t detect any insinuations about a more intimate relationship. For now, let’s just call them occasional roommates.

🚀 Zelensky’s next crisis began with last week’s troubles, after NABU investigators publicly released secret phone recordings showing corrupt conspirators using code names. That was a five-alarm fire. But two days ago, it exploded, and now threatens to burn down the capitol, after a Ukrainian lawmaker publicly claimed that one of the conspirators’ code names, “Ali Baba,” was actually Andriy Yermak. (In Ukrainian, Yermak’s initials are “A. B.”) Ruh-roh.

For Portland readers: remember that ‘Ali Baba’ was the clever Arabian Nights burglar who looted all that treasure from the Secret Cave of the Forty Thieves. Open Sesame! So.

Yermak hasn’t denied being Ali Baba. (“Yermak did not respond to requests for comment.”) Instead, he very suddenly remembered official business he needed to attend to in Turkey, and fled there. He’s been enjoying Turkish hospitality ever since. The story is that, on arrival, Yermak immediately demanded to speak with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, to “restart peace talks.” Witkoff allegedly refused to meet with him alone, demanding that Zelensky also attend.

Back in Kyiv, demands for Yermak’s firing were reaching a cacophonous crescendo. Yesterday’s headline from the Kyiv Independent:

“For the president to prove that he’s not part of the scheme and he’s not corrupt, he needs to get rid of all these corrupt inner circle friends. As simple as that,” Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center, told the Kyiv Independent. “Including Mr. Yermak.”

But … how can Zelensky fire Yermak, when Yermak knows where all the bodies are buried? Who else might a scorned Yermak take down? It’s a conundrum that could be easily resolved if Yermak had an unfortunate accident. Unfortunate accidents are a dime a dozen in Ukraine. It’s a war zone, after all.

Yermak knows that, too. Which might explain his sudden, unscheduled peace mission to Istanbul.

🚀 Back to Turkey. Hours after Witkoff refused to see Yermak without Zelensky, the storm-tossed president compliantly dropped everything and jetted to scenic, restful Istanbul. The New York Times reported that he went there “to revive long-stalled peace talks on Wednesday with negotiations in Turkey.” Steve Witkoff presented Zelensky with Trump’s already drafted, never-before-seen 28-point peace plan. Surprise!

Early this morning, Reuters reported the deal, understatedly saying “Washington wants Kyiv to accept the main points.” It’s a deal he can’t refuse.

Last night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted about “difficult but necessary concessions.”

Meanwhile, with Zelensky and Yermak cooling their heels and considering the 28 points in Istanbul, top U.S. generals arrived back in Kyiv, also to “discuss peace.” ABC, yesterday:

“Secretary Driscoll and team arrived this morning in Kyiv on behalf of the administration on a fact-finding mission to meet with Ukrainian officials and discuss efforts to end the war,” Colonel Dave Butler said in a dry statement on Wednesday.

Warbloggers noted that, while not unprecedented, it was highly unusual for military officials rather than State Department diplomats to discuss political issues like ending a war. And it definitely signaled a complex, ongoing US military operation, rather than just Trump shooting over a random plan he coughed up in the middle of the night.

In other words, this is a formal, coordinated government initiative involving joint diplomatic-military planning and high-level engagement, not a freelance presidential diktat. An initiative that never leaked.

🚀 “We don’t really care about the Europeans. It’s about Ukraine accepting.” No one was kept further out of the loop than the hapless Europeans. Scalded European leaders felt blindsided, frustrated, and are lamely pushing back. Euractiv, yesterday:

The Irish Times, also yesterday:

They are appalled, insulted, and flabbergasted. Already, they have begun demanding to participate, and have called more emergency meetings in Paris and Brussels. It’s their war too!

This remarkable spectacle is a sea-change from how Biden did business. Under Biden, nothing was ever proposed to Russia until all the NATO allies had fully debated, refined, and agreed to the terms over months of consensus-building. It led to a standing joke that NATO negotiated with itself till the Belgian cows came home, and only then presented consummated deals to the involved parties.

Yesterday, Politico’s Dasha Burns reported that a White House official said bluntly, “We don’t really care about the Europeans. It’s about Ukraine accepting.” Dasha described it in her podcast this morning, summarizing Trump’s power play:

“Washington feels that Ukraine is in the position right now, given the corruption scandals that have been plaguing Zelenskyy, given where the battle lines are at this moment, that Ukraine is in a position where they feel they can get them to accept this deal. They say it’s reasonable; it’s something that is, they believe, going to be palatable to Ukraine.”

“Things are moving fast,” Dasha warned. “It seems the plan will be presented to Zelenskyy as a fait accompli.” A senior White House official told Dasha they expect a framework for ending the conflict to be agreed by all parties by the end of this month— and possibly “as soon as this week.”

Russia’s U.S. Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who was not taken by surprise, said the 28-point plan is much more than just a ceasefire agreement. Rather, it is a proposal “to address the Ukraine conflict, but also how to restore U.S.-Russia ties and address Russia’s security concerns. It’s actually a much broader framework, to finally bring lasting security to all of Europe, not just Ukraine.”

Dasha concluded, “we finally appear to be approaching an inflection point. It’s a big moment.” (Italics hers.)

🚀 We’ve been fooled before. But this time, it looks like Trump has got Zelensky by the short, curly hair. His ‘wallet,’ Minchuk, has fled to Israel. His brain, Yermak, is dodging the guillotine. The U.S. Army has landed in Kyiv.

With this horrible, no-good polycrisis unfolding, one might expect Zelensky to start blaming everyone, denouncing the meddling Americans and crying about blackmail. But yesterday, after having the 28-point peace plan shoved in his flabby face, Zelensky gratefully tweeted from Turkey that “only President Trump and the U.S. can make this war come to an end:”

In other words, Zelensky, the master complainer, isn’t complaining. It’s Sherlock Holmes’s dog that didn’t bark again. Instead, the former comedian is praising President Trump. And he’s so flexible now! “President Erdogan proposed conversation formats,” Zelensky (or his social media managers) said, “and we are also ready to work in any other meaningful formats.”

🚀 How many times before have we thought this is it? And then, somehow, Zelensky and his European buddies manage to scurry away through a crack nobody noticed? But this time, President Trump obviously orchestrated a massive strategy that the Z-man and the Euroweenies never saw coming. The carefully coordinated corruption scandal —which nobody doubts happened— is the political equivalent of a decapitation strike.

This is ugly political hardball; the Mafia-like offer that can’t be refused, the horse head in the bedsheets. The only reason Zelensky wasn’t himself implicated in the corruption scandal —a scandal that includes all his best buddies— is because they need him to sign the paper. But if he won’t sign the paper, he’s useless. And what happens to useless people?

On Monday and Tuesday, the news cycle was consumed by the Epstein vote. But yesterday, Trump stole the news cycle right back, and hundreds or even thousands of headlines pivoted toward Eastern Europe like flocks of migratory birds.

It appears that Trump may be poised to resolve the most intractable, contentious, and difficult war on the planet since the last intractable, contentious, and difficult war that he resolved.

Just like Zelensky, Democrats now also face a polycrisis. Which crisis should they focus on? Epstein? Venezuela? Ukraine? SNAP? ICE deportations? National Guard in blue cities? Tariffs? Russiagate? Obamacare? Affordability? Nick Fuentes? Ali Baba and the Arabian Nights? How to steal all the Whovillians’ presents before sunrise?

Everyone keeps telling Trump to force Putin to take a deal. But how? Isn’t it much easier to negotiate a deal the Russians can live with, and then force Zelensky to take it? Maybe this time, we are finally in the endgame.

Have a terrific Thursday! C&C will be back tomorrow with, barring yet more historic and unexpected events, a regular roundup of all the terrific news we’ve missed so far this week. See you then.

Don’t race off! We cannot do it alone. Consider joining up with C&C to help move the nation’s needle and change minds. I could sure use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can: ☕ Learn How to Get Involved 🦠

How to Donate to Coffee & Covid

Twitter: jchilders98.
Truth Social: jchilders98.
MeWe: mewe.com/i/coffee_and_covid.
Telegram: t.me/coffeecovidnews
C&C Swag! www.shopcoffeeandcovid.com