There is an art to it, you know: flat-out lying with a straight face, and with such apparent sincerity that the listener might be tempted to think the speaker actually believes the crap they’re delivering.
Russian politicians have long been masters of the skill; and in today’s regime, no one does it better than our favorite Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov
Donald Trump — no slouch himself when it comes to peddling unadulterated drivel — told the world on Thursday that the upcoming U.S. midterm elections were in danger of foreign interference. He specifically named Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea as bad actors . . . even claiming that there was new intelligence supporting his accusations.
Naturally, both Russia and China were quick to deny the allegations. Chinese authorities called the claims “totally fabricated and a malicious smear,” and Moscow said that the so-called intelligence was “unattributed, unsubstantiated information.” [Kyiv Post, July 17, 2026.]
But at a press conference on Friday, the Kremlin’s Peskov didn’t stop there. Never one to miss an opportunity to leave me ROFLMAO, he offered this additional comment:
“Russia has never interfered in the domestic affairs of other countries. We expect that no one will attempt to interfere in ours.”
More than two years ago, I posted a piece about Russian oppositionist Boris Nadezhdin, titled “2/8/24: I Hate To Say I Told You So, But . . .”
It began as follows:
“I called this one. And I really can’t brag about it, because it was pretty much of a no-brainer. Boris Nadezhdin has now been warned by the Election Commission that they have found ‘flawed’ signatures on his petition for approval as a candidate for the presidency of the Russian Federation in next month’s election.
“Well, color me surprised . . . NOT!
Boris Nadezhdin, Candidate . . . Maybe
“On February 1st, I expressed my concern for this courageous man who has already managed to develop a substantial following, and gathered more than twice the number of signatures required to support his petition for inclusion on the ballot. I also wondered whether the Election Commission would still find a way to block his inclusion. And that may just be what is happening now. They have two more days in which to announce their final decision.”
Needless to say, he was ultimately barred from running by the Central Election Commission, which claimed to have found “irregularities” in the signatures supporting his candidacy.
*. *. *
I heard no more about Nadezhdin until July 2025, when it was reported that his 2024 campaign manager, Dmitry Kisiyev, had had his citizenship revoked by the Russian government on an accusation of having committed “actions posing a threat to national security.”
Dmitry Kisiyev
Nadezhdin has continued speaking out against the Putin regime and the war against Ukraine, and has recently been campaigning for a seat in the Russian Parliament in the upcoming September election. But last week he was designated a “foreign agent” — a label held over from Soviet times suggesting spying activities. [Lucy Papachistou, Reuters, July 17, 2026.]
He was next fined a symbolic 1,000 rubles ($13) for allegedly displaying “extremist symbols” — referring to a recent social media post linked to a video that included a photo of murdered dissident Alexei Navalny. [Id.]
Under the circumstances, Nadezhdin had begun contemplating whether to stay and risk arrest, or flee the country. But before he could act, he was detained by authorities and questioned, and has been forbidden to leave Russia. [AFP, July 16, 2026.]
*. *. *
Obviously, Vladimir Putin — despite being mired in a war he is losing but doesn’t know how to end, trying to jump-start an economy in free-fall, and watching his popularity rating plummet as a result — still has time to monitor, pursue and eliminate his political opponents.
I wonder: Why does that sound like someone else we all know?
Wouldn’t you love to know what they were discussing?
There’s so much of it going around these days, I couldn’t resist this insightful observation on the subject of stupidity from the late science fiction author Robert Heinlein:
“Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. There is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.”
Robert Heinlein (1907 – 1988)
If he was correct — that there is no cure for stupidity — I suppose we’ll just have to wait for nature to take its course on the current epidemic. We survived COVID; and we’ll survive this.
In the meantime, I hope the visual record of these years is being carefully preserved . . . because future generations are going to find it really hard to believe.
Another of my go-to news sources has now gone the way of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The BBC, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, and so many others. They are no longer accessible online without a paid subscription.
“Say it isn’t so!”
We are living in a time when keeping up with daily events is vital to our very survival. Unfortunately, this is also a period of economic uncertainty and difficulty for so many people. Even the cost of TV service has become insupportable for a great many.
At the same time, with much of the print media — the daily newspaper dropped (or thrown) at your front door each morning — being replaced by moment-to-moment online programming, the providers do need to make up the lost income in order to remain viable.
I used to pay around $15 a month for my daily and Sunday Washington Post subscription, which was easily affordable. And I supplemented that with the regular newscasts on the three major networks: NBC, ABC and CBS. Those were the good old days.
But those were also vastly different times — the years of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Edward R. Murrow, Huntley and Brinkley, Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings, Woodward and Bernstein . . . newsmen and women who reported the news, without being influenced by their personal viewpoints. We could trust what they told us; we didn’t need multiple sources and a Ph.D. in political science to distinguish fact from opinion.
Walter Cronkite: “The Most Trusted Man in America”
Today, many journalists find it difficult to leave their pre-existing beliefs and biases behind in order to present fair and objective reportage, instead giving us their personal slant and analysis based on how liberal, conservative, or middle-of-the-road they happen to be. And that requires us to consult numerous sources if we are to get a full and accurate picture.
But how many of us can afford half a dozen subscriptions when the bare necessities of life — food, shelter, health care, and gas — are sky-high and still climbing? Our cable or satellite TV, cell phones and internet fees already break the bank.
So what’s the answer to this dilemma? I wish I knew, because I feel lost and uninformed without myold standbys.
And please don’t tell me Fox News is still free, because that is not an option. I believe in the old adage: “You get what you pay for.”
On the night of July 16-17, 1918 — some eight months after the Bolshevik Revolution — Russia’s 300-year-old Romanov Dynasty met its ignominious demise in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
The Family of Tsar Nicholas II
Already having been forced by the Revolution to abdicate, Tsar Nicholas II was sent into exile with his family, where they were held captive by members of Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik party. On the night of July 16-17, they were taken to the basement of the large house on the bizarre pretext of having their photographs taken. But the “shots” in store for them were not pictures; they were bullets. Nicholas, the Tsarina Aleksandra, their son and four daughters, and their few loyal servants were simply mowed down — without trial, without explanation, without any opportunity to defend themselves.
The full history of events leading up to that horrific night and the seven decades of communism that followed is well documented, and makes fascinating reading for even the most stubborn non-students of history. The three centuries of the Romanovs’ reign were filled with more murders, uprisings, palace coups, underhanded double-dealing, extravagance, jealousy, hatred, and lust than an entire library of graphic novels could ever conjure.
And it all came to a screeching halt in a hail of gunfire, in a dingy basement, in the middle of the night.
End of a Dynasty
But I am not here today to offer a lengthy history lesson. Rather, I see this anniversary as a cautionary tale, reminding autocratic rulers everywhere of how tyrants eventually meet their ends — not always by violent death, but at the very least in disgrace.
Ordinarily, I find much to inspire me in the writings and musings of the former First Lady. But I have to take exception to this one:
“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962)
I suppose that’s possible for one who was blessed with great intellect, great wealth, and great position in life — as Eleanor Roosevelt certainly was.
And at one time, to a lesser degree, I recall feeling somewhat the same way. Every day held new promise, nothing was impossible, and the world was my proverbial oyster.
But for most of us, as we grow older, those challenges just look exhausting. Speaking for myself, while the spirit is still up for a bit of adventure, the body just prefers to be left alone. And even the mind — while I continue to work hard at not slipping into senility — needs more rest than it used to.
So I pay homage to Mrs. Roosevelt; she has my admiration for many reasons, not the least of which was her undaunted energy. But there is no way I can summon up that same daily renewal of strength.
She was indeed a better woman than I.
Just sayin’ . . .
Brendochka 7/16/26
P.S. I hope she won’t mind if I edit her sentence. It should read: “With the new day come new strength and new thoughts.” Plural: strength andthoughts.
They’ve apparently been safely back on the farm in Nizhny Novgorod for a while now, though it still isn’t clear exactly when their stay in Crimea actually took place. It appears to have been at least a month ago; and you’ll recall that there was a considerable delay in posting their videos, for reasons that were never clearly explained.
Now, the videos keep coming, one after another. I’ve just viewed #8, having skipped the visit to a tomato farm, because I was much more interested in their day of rest and relaxation in Russian-occupied Sevastopol, Crimea.
By the Sea
Starting Their Walk
In Town
Yes, they finally identified their location, and it’s a surprise: a famous resort city directly on the Black Sea shore . . . and the target of missile and drone attacks by Ukraine since the latter part of 2022.
While Ukraine has been careful to aim its attacks at Russian military installations, oil refineries, tankers, and other war-related facilities, Crimea is still technically a war zone; and in war, anything can happen. The U.S. Department of State lists the entire Crimean Peninsula as a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” zone. And in addition to the obvious dangers, there are the inconveniences of fuel shortages, intermittent power outages, and the like.
I’ve not been privileged to visit Crimea; but I have been to Sochi, a similar Black Sea resort on the Russian side. And those Black Sea resorts in the summertime are always packed with Russians on holiday, as well as visitors from many lands. But as I viewed Arend Feenstra’s pictures taken in Sevastopol and at an earllier resort stop, something seemed off. It took a while to register, but I finally realized what it was:
I did not see any crowds.
Some Sort of Museum
A Commercial Area
None of that seems to have fazed the Feenstra clan, though, as they enjoyed the natural beauty of the region . . . always carefully avoiding any mention of the war taking place not far from them, as though it didn’t exist.
Of course, with Ukraine’s drones reaching Moscow and beyond, there are no guarantees of safety back in Nizhny Novgorod, either. I guess it’s all part of the price they’re paying for the privilege of living in the ultra-conservative, large-family-obsessed, woke-free workers’ paradise.
The Feenstras’ priorities are obviously different from mine. But to my mind, that’s much too high a price to pay.
For four and a half years, Russia has been battering Ukraine’s civilian population with missiles and drones in a no-holds-barred war of attrition — killing babies, women, and old folks; destroying homes, shops, schools, hospitals and transportation hubs; kidnapping children and re-homing them in Russian territory; and burning wheat fields in order to systematically starve the Ukrainian people.
And now, when Ukraine launches a successful drone attack on Russian tankers in the Sea of Azov — ships operating in violation of existing international sanctions — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has given us one of his best straight-faced stand-up routines:
“What the Ukrainian regime is doing goes beyond even piracy. Pirates, at least, plunder and keep the spoils for themselves. But here, it benefits neither them nor anyone else — the goal is simply to cause damage and intimidate. It is terrorism, pure and simple.” [Reuters, July 14, 2026.]
Sergey Lavrov
Methinks someone needs to educate that man about people who live in glass houses . . .
Even in Shakespeare’s time, it seemed that bad luck, tragedies and misfortunes were often piled one on top of the other:
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!”
– William Shakespeare, “Hamlet,” Act IV, Scene 5
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)
So if you’ve been thinking that the seemingly endless deluge of bad juju our world has been experiencing is unusual, it’s probably not true. But it sure can feel that way sometimes.
I, for one, am ready for a miracle.
Hmm . . . I wonder what the Bard had to say about miracles . . .
Between 1932 and 1933, millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in what was known as the Holodomor, or the Ukrainian famine. It was not caused by drought, floods, or crop infestation. It was manmade, most likely resulting from the disastrous effects of forced collectivization by the Soviet government.
It is still being debated whether that famine — which affected other parts of the Soviet Union as well — was intentionally created by Josef Stalin as a means of controlling the peasantry. But it quickly became obvious that, at the very least, its advent was used by him to press the people of Ukraine into submission, and to quash their nationalist sentiments and resistance to Soviet policies.
Yes, even then — nearly a century ago — Ukraine was fighting for its historic sovereignty. And the Soviet government was using the most lethal weapons at its disposal to prevent their success.
Fast forward to 2026. Josef Stalin is long dead . . . as is the political entity formerly known as the USSR, now broken apart into 15 independent nations, the largest and most powerful of which is the Russian Federation. But Russia, under Vladimir Putin, has not given up its lust for control of the country known as the “breadbasket of Europe.”
Now four and a half years into its war of attrition against the sovereign nation of Ukraine, Russia is growing desperate. The “special military operation” that was to have lasted no more than a few weeks has dragged on. Rather than frightening the Ukrainian people into submission, the invasion of 2022 only strengthened their resolve, and brought the allied nations of Europe, the United States, Canada and others to their defense.
Coalition of the Willing
Even 21st-century technology hasn’t won the day for Putin’s armies; on the contrary, Ukraine has become the world’s leader in the newest military innovation: drone warfare. And in his desperation, Putin — who has been viciously and illegally targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure throughout the war — has now resorted to the cruelest, most inhumane tactic in his arsenal: starvation of the civilian population. But not by the slow method of poor crop management employed by Stalin.
In the face of Ukraine’s unexpected push-back, Russia is once again — using modern methods of attaining maximum kill in minimum time — attacking agricultural lands with incendiary bombs, burning thousands of hectares of wheat and other crops in a matter of mere hours.
Viktor Hordiyenko,, a farmer in Ukraine’s Kherson region whose father was killed last year in a Russian drone strike, this year has lost his crops to Russian attacks:
“A hundred a day. This is not an exaggeration. A hundred drones a day. Shelling every day. They’re hunting us. They burnt 2,000 hectares of my wheat in a single night. Winter wheat, all the crops you see, have been scorched.” [Yevhenia Nazarova, RFE/RL, July 11, 2026.]
Kherson, Ukraine – July 2026
He added that the number of attacks has tripled recently — at harvest time — since just a few months ago.
Oleksandr Tolonnikov, deputy head of Kherson’s regional military administration, told RFE/RL that:
“The security situation in the Kherson region continues to deteriorate. Russia is not reducing the intensity of strikes, but, on the contrary, is systematically increasing terror against civilian residents.” [Id.]
The obvious goal: Starvation, leading to submission.
And the human and economic toll will likely stretch beyond Ukraine’s borders. It is one of Europe’s largest suppliers of wheat; a reduction in exports would affect, not only Ukraine’s economy, but those of other countries as well. The tentacles of Vladimir Putin’s immoral and blatantly illegal actions will reach far and wide.
But has he considered the possibility that his recent escalations might turn around and bite him in the ass? His war has already cost him dearly, both economically and in terms of his popularity . . . possibly even threatening his hold on power. Will this latest obscene cruelty be the final straw?
His ingrained autocratic nature will never allow him to concede. But autocrats have historically become the instruments of their own downfalls by reaching too far. They don’t have to call it quits; the people eventually do it for them.
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