I happened to stumble across an article today about an American man from Kansas, Joe Schutzman, who “decided to move his family from Kansas to the Moscow region because of his frustration with LGBTQ+ ‘propaganda’ in the US.” [Daniel Zuidijk, Bloomberg, June 12, 2024.]

No need to go into detail here. Suffice it to say, I think Mr. Schutzman is certifiable, and his wife should have had him committed rather than follow him, with their six young children, halfway around the world to Putin’s Paradise. But maybe she’s as far off the reservation as he is. In any event, good luck to them in their search for the perfect life.

*. *. *

What this article reminded me of, though, is the Feenstra family from Canada. Remember them? Back in February, I wrote about their nearly identical journey: heading for a “better life” in Russia in order to escape the new “wokeness” of their Canadian home, dragging eight of their nine children (the smart one stayed behind voluntarily) into the unknown of a country that . . . well, it’s Russia, for crying out loud.

And I realized I hadn’t heard any more about those eight youngsters and their wacko parents for many months. So I did what everyone does these days: I Googled them. And I came up with their YouTube channel, “Feenstra Faith and Family.” Disturbingly, the last entry seems to have been made four months ago, when it was announced that they had been “kicked out of Russia.”

Oh, dear . . . what had they done?

Well, it’s still not clear. When they first moved there, they said it was to be a permanent arrangement, and that they had been promised all the help they needed to get settled. Aden Feenstra was a beet farmer in Canada, and he said before leaving that he had been assured they would be able to acquire a home and land to farm in Russia. And he believed it. But in this video, and in other similarly dated reports, it is said that they had only been given “visitor” visas, which expired in three months.

Aden’s videos of five to six months ago show him out strolling through the snow in Nizhny Novgorod. There is no sign of a farm. His wife, Anneesa, is busy with the eight children and “editing [their] YouTube channel.” But later (four months ago), he speaks of the problems involved in leaving the country for the required three months before being permitted to reenter, and the cost (an estimated $10,000 each way) of moving ten people back and forth. What their destination would be, he doesn’t say.

What the hell is wrong with these people??!!!

Didn’t they stop to think of these things before they packed up, sold the farm in Canada, and went traipsing off in search of Utopia in one of the most repressive societies in the entire world? Didn’t they do their due diligence?

Obviously not. And I worry about those eight innocent children, who had no say in any of the decision-making of their delusional parents, as well as for the Schutzmans’ six little ones.

Unfortunately, they’re most likely not eligible for a hostage exchange . . . unless they’re found to have been “wrongfully detained.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/3/24