What my Ukrainian grandmother lacked in formal education, she more than made up for with her incredible food, limitless amounts of love, and old-world folk wisdom. For example: “If you keep frowning, your face will freeze like that.” Or: “Don’t sit on the cold concrete steps, or you’ll get piles (hemorrhoids).”

And this actually useful bit of advice: “You are judged by the company you keep.”

As I recall, her exact words were: “Stay away from that girl; she’s a “kurva.” (Google Translate can help you with that one, though it’s probably not necessary.) But the meaning of her warning was unmistakable: you are indeed judged by the company you keep.

And she was an amazing judge of character. So I wonder what she would have said if she were here today to witness this photo being hung in a place of honor in the U.S. White House:

I can think of a few appropriate expletives that might have come to my grandmother’s mind. But beyond the numerous synonyms to be found in my little “Dictionary of Russian Obscenities,” I know what that picture says to me: that the real “enemy within” is not the alleged murderers, rapists or drug dealers; not the undocumented immigrants; and not the so-called “terrorist” demonstrators.

The real enemy of our democracy is the guy in the red tie, welcoming an internationally-wanted war criminal onto our territory in flagrant disregard of an outstanding ICC warrant, rolling out the red carpet, greeting him like a long-lost brother, and making back-room trade deals with him while his Russian troops continue to decimate Ukraine.

That is the company Trump chooses to keep, and to flaunt. I know that my grandmother — whose greatest joy was feeding people — would not have allowed either of the people in that picture to set foot in her kitchen. She had escaped the horrors of Tsarist Russia, and she knew evil when she saw it.

And that’s enough for me.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/31/26