We humans are an odd bunch, for many reasons. But one of the most foolish things we do repeatedly, year after year, decade after decade, is place our faith in some magical, mystical, absolutely implausible ability of January 1st to make things better. Not just for ourselves, but for the entire world. Has it happened yet? Looking around, I’d say no. And yet we continue to hope. I suppose a world without hope would be totally unbearable; yet, how much disappointment can we continue to bring upon ourselves? And what do they say about the definition of insanity? That it’s doing the same thing over and over, exactly the same way, and expecting a different result. I rest my case.

Yet here I am, having awakened — two days in a row now — to a brand-new year, and finding that nothing has changed. My back still aches; my bank account doesn’t show any unexpected deposits; and I don’t smell a huge English breakfast being prepared for me in the kitchen. Inconceivably, even that’s not enough evidence for me — I have to click into the day’s news reports too.

Oh, crap!

It wasn’t just a bad dream after all. Japan started the year off with a bang . . . literally. On New Year’s Day, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck western Japan, causing a number of deaths and injuries, severe structural damage and power outages; stranding 1,400 passengers on bullet trains between the cities of Toyama and Kanazawa; and precipitating tsunami warnings (later downgraded to advisories) along the island nation’s west coast, where four-foot waves were reported.

Elsewhere, the war in Ukraine rages on, and is becoming more and more fierce as Russia steps up its bombardments specifically aimed at civilian targets, and striking cities in the north, south, east, west and central regions, all on the same day.

And Israel continues to pursue Hamas with a goal of wiping out the terrorist organization, but meanwhile racking up a terrifying number of civilian casualties. Charges have even been lodged against Israel for alleged war crimes. But wasn’t Hamas’ original attack also a war crime?

Where is the biblical Solomon when you need him to figure these things out?

And the all-too familiar “accidents” are still occurring in Russia, where friends, supporters, cronies of Vladimir Putin continue to fall — not merely out of favor — but out of windows to their deaths, which are then attributed to “heart conditions.” In September of 2022, Lukoil tycoon Ravil Maganov, age 67, took a nosedive from a window of the elite Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow. He was reported to be suffering from heart problems. Coincidentally, the hospital’s CCTV cameras had been “turned off for repairs” . . . and Putin himself was reported to be visiting the hospital . . . all on the same day.

In February of this past year, Marina Yankina, a 58-year-old top Russian defense official, fell 160 feet to her death in St. Petersburg. She had been a key figure in the funding of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

While we’re at it, let us not forget the most spectacular “fall” of all: that of Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose plane fell from the sky in August of 2023, killing him, two of his top Wagner Group officials, four bodyguards, three flight crew members, and a par . . . oh, no, that’s all. No partridge; just ten people.

This past week, Vladimir Egorov, 46, a member of the ruling United Russia party from the Tobolsk region in western Siberia, was found dead in a courtyard outside his home. No information has yet been advanced as to the cause of his death, though it wouldn’t surprise anyone if we were to learn that it had something to do with a “heart problem,” and not that hitting-the-pavement thing.

And one more to close out the year, though this one was just a close call. Russia’s “egg king” . . . yes, apparently there is such a thing . . . survived an assassination attempt just two days after he had become the target of an investigation for alleged price fixing. His name is Gennady Shiryaev, and he was driving his BMW 4×4 in Voronezh, Russia, when he was ambushed by a gunman firing two shots, both of which missed. Obviously, the people of Russia take their eggs, and the grossly inflated price thereof, very seriously. Whether the shooting was meant as a warning, or the gunman was just a lousy shot, is not so obvious. It is also not known whether the shooter was a disgruntled citizen fed up with the cost of groceries, or a professional assassin hired to do a job. What is clear, however, is the manner in which issues are being dealt with in today’s Russia: If someone becomes a problem, eliminate them. Problem solved.

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But those are just drops in the bucket of doom. I have found a list of no fewer than 26 suspicious deaths of prominent Russians in 2022 and another couple of dozen in 2023. That’s a lot of people, still in the prime of life, having heart attacks while standing next to an open window — although some of the reported causes were undoubtedly different, and hopefully more imaginative.

But in all fairness, they were warned. In July of 2000, Putin summoned 21 of his top oligarchs and business leaders and assured them that he wouldn’t reverse the privatization of their assets . . . “provided they pledged their loyalty to him and agreed not to meddle in politics.” And certainly, with each new report of an “accidental” death, it must have occurred to some of these people that something was decidedly fishy.

And then there’s this, previously quoted by me in my blog post of December 14, 2023:

“But . . . analysts suggest that loyalty had not been enough for Putin and that he wants to create a new cadre of hugely wealthy figures who are beholden to him by distributing the assets that the state has seized from foreign companies exiting Russia and through invalidating the privatizations from the 1990s.

”Analyst Nikolai Petrov of Britain’s Royal Institute of International Affairs wrote that Russia is engaged in deprivatization ‘intended to redistribute wealth to a new generation of less-powerful individuals and shore up the president’s own position.’

“A new group of quasi-owner state oligarchs is being created, with wealth and control redistributed from the ‘old nobles’ to the new . . .” [Jim Heinz, Associated Press, Dec. 6, 2023.]

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It seems to me that it doesn’t get much more straightforward than that. To make way for the new, one must first clear out the old — whether it’s clothes, furniture, or people.

And if the old won’t leave voluntarily, they sometimes have to be given a little push.

Just sayin’. . .

Brendochka
1/2/24