Please raise your hand if you know what a frappe is.

Well, it’s nice to see at least one New Englander in the room. Because here in the U.S., that’s the only place you’re likely to come across a frappe on the menu of your local ice cream parlor.

For the edification of those not fortunate enough to have grown up in the northeast corner of the United States — also known as “God’s country” — a frappe is what the rest of you probably refer to as a milk shake: milk, syrup and ice cream, all whipped to a thick, frothy nectar fit for the gods on Olympus.

But not in New England. Oh, no. There, a milk shake is a simpler, thinner (though still frothy) mix of milk and syrup — usually chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, or (my particular favorite) coffee. No ice cream.

If you add the ice cream, it becomes a frappe . . .

. . . except in Rhode Island, where it’s called a “cabinet,” and please don’t ask me why because I have no idea — nor, apparently, does anyone else. But having lived my first nine years in Rhode Island, I will say that nothing they do surprises me. They seem to enjoy being different just for the hell of it, possibly to avoid being overlooked because it’s the smallest state . . . much like the runt of the litter who barks the loudest.

Anyway, enough about that.

But speaking of “cabinets,” I see that the day after tomorrow — Wednesday, October 8th — is National Stop Bullying Day, which naturally brings to mind that band of bullies known as the Presidential Cabinet in the Washington White House. (Get the subtle segue?)

Don’t you agree that this would be the perfect time to bind and gag them all — together with their leader, of course — and ride them out of town on a rail?

Wow! That got a much bigger show of hands than the frappe question.

That’s it for now, folks. Feel free to applaud, and thank you for your attention to this matter.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/6/25

Each day, I write whatever happens to be on my mind, with the goal of posting it to my blog shortly after midnight. It is now 11:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 5th (EDT), and I have spent the last 12 hours doing absolutely nothing. In fact, if my bladder hadn’t been screaming at me to pay attention, I might not have bothered getting out of bed at all.

I have days like this occasionally, when the news is either so horrific, or merely repetitious, that I can’t bear to dwell on it. I did try to think of something — perhaps a childhood memory or embarrassing experience — with which to amuse you, but nothing leapt to mind.

Instead, I have over-indulged in cookies, ice cream, and other sweets between meals; watched a half dozen episodes of “Would I Lie To You?” (on BritBox, highly recommended); sorted my pills for the coming week (five prescriptions and five supplements daily, if you must know); enjoyed a two-hour chair nap; made my to-do list for the coming week, most of which will undoubtedly be carried over to the following week; and got out the Gorilla Glue to re-attach two little rubber feet that had worked their way free of my iPad case.

And I’m exhausted.

I also re-educated myself on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which runs for a week beginning today (Monday), and is one of the few Jewish holidays that is actually joyous.

If you’re at all familiar with the history of the Jews, you know that we have had more than our fair share of troubles — in fact, 5,786 years of them — so we’ll take all the pleasure we can muster.

I’m reminded of the lines from “Fiddler On the Roof,” when the entire Jewish community is being expelled from their Russian village of Anatevka, and someone says, with a deep sigh of resignation:

“Our forefathers have been forced out of many, many places at a moment’s notice” . . . to which Tevye the Milkman philosophically responds:

“Maybe that’s why we always wear our hats.”

So a week of celebrating the autumn harvest and recalling the miracle of the exodus to the Promised Land is most welcome — especially when we’ve just survived the 24-hour fast of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, earlier this week.

(And to all of my Christian and Muslim friends: Yes, I know one day is nothing compared to the 40 days of Lent, or the month-long observance of Ramadan; but I didn’t make the rules, so please find someone else to yell at.)

To sum it up, I find I am able to justify my one day of sybaritic self-indulgence by recalling this brilliant summation of the entire history of the Jews (original author unknown):

“They tried to kill us.
They didn’t succeed.
Let’s eat.”

*. *. *

And now, it seems, I have actually completed a submission for my Monday blog, so it wasn’t a totally wasted day after all. I think that calls for some more Haagen-Dazs.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/6/25 – 12:01 a.m.

Remember late last year, when the U.S. east coast was plagued by mystery drones buzzing military installations, Donald Trump’s Bedminster (N.J.) golf course, and other sensitive areas, and the government assured us that — while they hadn’t the foggiest notion of what those things actually were — they definitely were not a threat to our security?

One particularly interesting hypothesis came from New Jersey’s Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew, who claimed he had heard from “high sources” that the drones detected over his state were originating from an Iranian “mothership” in the Atlantic:

“That mothership … is off the East Coast of the United States of America. They’ve launched drones into everything that we can see or hear. These are from high sources. I don’t say this lightly. [They should be] shot down.” [Bernd Debusmann, Jr., BBC News, December 12, 2024.]

But we were reassured by Connecticut’s Democrat Representative James Himes — on the always-reliable Fox News Sunday show — that he had good news:

“Now, let me say something that I know with confidence. It is not the Iranians. It is not the Chinese. They aren’t Martians. I know that’s very unsatisfying for people who want a Hollywood movie out of this.” [John Bacon and Thao Nguyen, USA Today, December 16, 2024.]

What a relief that was! But still, what were they?

Then things quieted down, the drones swhooshed out of the news, and in April of this year we learned that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was testing systems to detect drones in New Jersey . . . presumably the same drones we had been told not to worry about.

By that time, the Trump team had taken over the lunatic asylum in Washington, and the new Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, told us the earlier sightings in New Jersey were a “drone fiasco under the last administration,” assuring the public:

“This administration has taken a completely different approach, radical transparency. The FAA is doing this to ensure we can properly detect drones in our airspace and make sure they don’t interfere with airplane navigation systems … This is about protecting our national security and American safety.” [Pete Muntean, CNN, April 15, 2025.]

And we’ve all slept more soundly since then, haven’t we?

*. *. *

But wait . . . What’s happening now in Europe? The past few weeks have seen a drone invasion that leaves last year’s U.S. experience in the shade. It started in Poland on September 10th, when a swarm of Russian drones overflew Polish airspace, prompting NATO to scramble military aircraft to intercept them and shoot some of them down.

The logical assumption here is that this was entirely unrelated to last year’s U.S. sightings; these were not Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UPAs, formerly referred to as UFOs), but were related to Russia’s ongoing invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

But then Denmark began reporting sightings in various areas, including above or near the Karup Air Base, the country’s biggest military base. On September 22nd, Copenhagen Airport — Scandinavia’s largest airport — was forced to shut down temporarily, creating major delays.

And now Germany is investigating claims of unidentified drones that appear to have been spying on critical infrastructure in multiple areas. Regional Interior Minister Sabine Sutterlin-Waack told a parliamentary committee that flying objects of “various types and sizes” had been spotted, including a “combined drone formation” over a university hospital and a power plant, as well as sightings over government buildings, an oil refinery, and military bases. [Associated Press, October 4, 2025.]

Munich Airport has been shut down twice in less than 24 hours following two additional drone sightings, causing serious delays for at least 6,500 passengers. [Id.]

*. *. *

So, of course, the question inevitably arises: “WTF??!!!”

Well, don’t look at me; I don’t have the answer. But there seem to be a few possibilities.

First, this rash of sightings might be, as some suspect, a Russian attempt to gauge NATO’s defensive capabilities in the event of a real invasion. That, to me, makes eminently good sense, and could actually have an advantageous effect in that it has spurred many European countries to increase their defensive positions . . . just in case “Mad Vlad” Putin is up to something even more malevolent.

Second, it could conceivably be a whole bunch of civilian mischief-makers being really stupid. But that’s doubtful — there are just too many of them, they’re too widespread, and they’re too sophisticated.

Which still leaves us with the unanswered questions about last year’s U.S. sightings. Maybe . . . just maybe . . . those really were extraterrestrials; and when they got a look at the incoming U.S. administration, they realized we were beyond salvation, left us alone, and decided to focus instead on the lovely cities of Europe, where they hoped to find that the older, more entrenched civilizations are . . . well . . . more civilized.

But then . . .

*. *. *

On second thought, maybe E.T. would be better off staying at home. We Earthlings have obviously gone batshit crazy.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/5/25

I love these times when I can report on the release of hostages or prisoners of war, instead of adding to the numbers of those still imprisoned.

And this week, it was another swap between Russia and Ukraine — each side sending home 185 POWs and 20 civilians, most of whom have been incarcerated since early in the war that began in February 2022.

To add to the excitement, I am able today to delete from my list of known POW’s the group I call “The Azov 12” — a dozen members of the Ukrainian Army’s Azov Brigade, taken prisoner after one of the most brutal standoffs of the war at Mariupol near the Sea of Azov and finally included in this latest exchange.

A joyous day indeed!

*. *. *

But of course, never to be forgotten are the tens — perhaps hundreds — of thousands of those still awaiting release.

Once again, here is the list of the ones I know of:

Immigrant Detainees in Russia:

Migrants from the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Prisoners of War:

The 19,500 Kidnapped Ukrainian Children
The People of Ukraine
The Azov 12

Endangered Exiles:

Mikita Losik
Yulia Navalnaya
Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents

Political Prisoners:

In Azerbaijan:

The “Azerbaijan 7”:
— Farid Mehralizada
— Ulvi Hasanli
— Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai)
— Mahammad Kekalov
— Hafiz Babali
— Nargiz Absalamova
— Elnara Gasimova

In Belarus:

Ales Bialiatski
Andrei Chapiuk
Marya Kalesnikava
Uladzimir Labkovich
Marfa Rabkova
Valiantsin Stafanovic
Yuras Zyankovich

In China:

Chenyue Mao (American)

In Russia:

David Barnes (American)
Gordon Black (American)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman (American)
Stephen James Hubbard (American)
Sergey Karelin
Timur Kishukov
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Michael Travis Leake (American)
Aleksei Liptser
Grigory Melkonyants
Nika Novak
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Sofiane Sehili (French)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector (American)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland (American)

You have not been overlooked; please stay strong, and have faith that your turn will come soon.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/5/25

What is Aleksandr Lukashenko up to now?

Despite being known as “Europe’s last dictator”; and despite his record of brutal authoritarianism since assuming the presidency of Belarus in 1994; and despite the questionable legitimacy of his subsequent re-elections; and despite his willingness to allow his country to be used as a staging ground for Russian troops and armaments in pursuance of Putin’s war against Ukraine . . . despite all of that, we now see Lukashenko openly making overtures to the U.S. But to what end?

In mid-August, as Donald Trump was en route to his now infamous meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, he took the time to speak by phone with Lukashenko — the first-ever such conversation for the Belarusian leader. In a social media post following that call, Trump, believing that Lukashenko might be of help in U.S.-Russian negotiations concerning the war in Ukraine, referred to the long-ostracized dictator as “highly respected President” — even though officially the West does not recognize Lukashenko as the legitimate president of his country. [Artyom Shraibman, Carnegie Politika, August 21, 2025.]

Trump also expressed appreciation for the release of 16 prisoners (though not referring to them as “political” prisoners), and agreed to meet with Lukashenko in person at some unspecified time . . . even saying he would come to Belarus with his family. Trump’s objective was said to be the release of additional prisoners being held in Belarus, who may number as many as 1,300 in total. [Id.]

Four weeks later, on September 11th, Lukashenko met with U.S. envoy John Coale in Minsk, where Coale handed him a letter from Trump, written in English and signed simply “Donald.” At that time, Lukashenko announced that he was ready to make a deal on the release of prisoners, saying:

“If Donald insists that he is ready to take in all these released prisoners, God bless you, let’s try to work out a global deal, as Mr. Trump likes to say, a big deal.” [Marina Bobrova, Reuters, September 11, 2025.]

Coale referred to Trump’s letter, and the first-name-only signature, as “a rare act of personal friendship.” [Id.]

Later that day, Belarus released 52 prisoners of various nationalities, who then traveled to Lithuania with the U.S. negotiating team.

Again, Trump’s intentions may be twofold, and perfectly legitimate: seeking the release of as many prisoners as possible, and trying to use Lukashenko’s presumed influence with Putin as leverage in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

But what is Lukashenko really up to? Is he merely currying favor to improve his standing in the international political hierarchy? Or is he growing weary of being under Putin’s thumb and genuinely turning Westward?

It has now come to light that on September 10th, as an estimated 700 Russian drones entered Belarusian airspace en route to the Polish border, a Belarusian military officer — not for the first time — used a dedicated phone line to call his Polish counterpart and warn him. And a similar call was made to military officials in neighboring Lithuania as well. [Mike Eckel and Andnrei Shauliuha, RFE/RL, October 3, 2025.]

In addition, there have been unconfirmed reports that a number of those drones have been shot down by Belarusian defense forces, though most have gone unreported by official sources. [Id.]

Now, that seems certain to infuriate Vladimir Putin. So why risk it?

I certainly don’t have the answer to that. But Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled leader of Belarus’ opposition party — whose husband Syarhei is himself a recently-released political prisoner of Lukashenko — warned that the dictator is trying to fool Trump with gestures such as the release of a handful of prisoners, in exchange for which Trump has already eased some sanctions against Belarus.

While expressing appreciation for having won the recent prisoner releases, Tsikhanouskaya cautioned the U.S. “not to pay too much” for the relatively small number of people freed thus far. Noting that Lukashenko’s brutal crackdowns and mass arrests are continuing in what she called a “revolving door,” she urged that the U.S. should continue working to free prisoners while the opportunity presents itself, saying that:

. . . “people are dying in prisons. That’s why we need . . . consistent and irreversible changes, not to let this regime to take more and more and more hostages to sell them for higher price [sic].” [Michael Weissenstein, AP, September 25, 2025.]

Again, it all boils down to a question of trust . . . and Aleksandr Lukashenko is a man who has proven many times over that he cannot, under any circumstances, be trusted. One possible scenario is that he is doing Putin’s bidding — playing up to Trump to gain an easing of sanctions or other favors that would ultimately be of benefit to Russia, if only indirectly.

In the meantime, we can only hope that Trump’s common sense — if he still has any — will for once outweigh his ego’s susceptibility to flattery.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/4/25

. . . that during a government shutdown, Congress continues to receive full pay and benefits?

As of October 1st, “non-essential” government employees were furloughed, without pay, for an indefinite period of time . . . until the Senate makes up its collective mind as to whether it’s okay to render medical insurance unaffordable for millions of low- to middle-income Americans.

As for the “essential” federal workers, they continue to work . . . but also without pay. This is because all of those loyal employees — legislative assistants, administrative assistants, maintenance workers, cafeteria workers, national park rangers, etc. — are paid in accordance with a budget that has to be renewed annually.

But Congressional members’ salaries are governed by Article I, Section 6 of the U.S. Constitution. And since 1983, they have been funded by a permanent appropriation outside of the annual budget.

So, while they sit and haggle over our current and future well-being, and send hundreds of thousands of people home without a source of income — and with the threat of permanent dismissal hanging over their heads, thanks to Donald Trump and OMB director Russell Vought’s latest diabolical scheme — those Senators have no clue as to how we feel when we have to wonder how long we’ll be able to put food on the table, make tuition and car payments, or hold onto our homes.

Thanks a lot, Congress. We’ll remember you at election time.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/4/25

It isn’t just the lives they’ve destroyed by stalking and arresting innocent people. It isn’t even just their trashing of the U.S. Constitution. Now it’s also the trickle-down effect of their storm-trooper tactics.

By allowing masked agents, some even in civilian clothes, to grab people from their homes, their jobs, their schools, their places of worship, or simply off the streets, Donald Trump has now effectively created a new genre of criminality: ICE impersonators.

Grab a gun and a mask, act like a tough guy, shout “ICE,” and you’re free to attack, rob, even kidnap innocent people at will. And all of the witnesses and CCTV footage in the world will be unable to identify you.

Since the start of this year, at least two dozen cases of people impersonating immigration officers have been revealed. These range from verbal intimidation of immigrants to actual violent crimes; and the victims have no way of determining whether their attackers are actually government agents.

California’s Governor Gavin Newsom last month signed a bill — the first in the U.S. — banning agents from wearing masks during operations in his state. But the White House declared the California law unconstitutional, and has said that ICE will not abide by it. [Alexandra Banner, CNN’s 5 Things a.m., October 3, 2025.]

So let me get this straight: It is now “unconstitutional” to outlaw an act that is itself blatantly unconstitutional . . . right?

What the hell . . . ??!!!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/3/25

We all know who this is . . . and we know that he left Washington in even worse condition than he found it.

Now meet the man who is picking up where Musk left off: Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Did I hear a chorus of voices asking “Who?” . . . or perhaps it was “So what?” that echoed throughout the hall. Who really cares about the government’s chief bean-counter?

Well, we should all care. Because, although his position does not earn him a place in the presidential cabinet, his department — the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) — is the largest one within the Executive Office of the U.S. President, and reports directly, and only, to the President.

According to the White House website, the OMB “ . . . serves the President of the United States in overseeing the implementation of his vision across the Executive Branch. Specifically, OMB’s mission is to assist the President in meeting his policy, budget, management and regulatory objectives and to fulfill the agency’s statutory responsibilities.”

In the current administration, that makes him Donald Trump’s #1 Lackey. And that is a position that carries with it a whole lot of power.

Now, that might be a good thing if the position were held by a clear-thinking, law-abiding, red-blooded American who might be able to rein in an out-of-control tyrant with a raging God complex. But Vought is cut from the same cloth as Trump, and is not just a puppet doing his boss’ bidding, but is on a long-term power trip of his own.

His history, both professional and political, is too lengthy, too complex, and too disturbing to reiterate here. For that, I urge you to peruse the article by Phil Mattingly and Jeremy Herb titled “Trump’s shutdown architect: Russ Vought’s plan to deconstruct the government was years in the making,” [CNN, October 2, 2025].

Most recently, however, as Congress fought over a budget for 2026 and the government headed toward a shutdown, Vought was busy preparing a 622-word directive that completely ignored and overrode all of the contingency plans from previous years.

This time, in the event of a shutdown, every federal agency would be required to submit detailed plans for mass layoffs.

Those plans would take immediate effect, and would only be shelved if Democrats agreed to a Republican funding measure they had already voted to reject. [Mattingly and Herb, CNN, id.] [Bold emphasis is mine.]

Thus, Vought — together with Trump’s willing Republican toadies in Congress — will have conspired to place the blame for the government’s closure on the Democrats who have fought to safeguard the rights and protections afforded Americans by the Constitution.

While Musk’s DOGE was focused on his astronomical budget cuts, Vought has quietly been jockeying into a position enabling him to dismantle the entire federal bureaucracy, becoming Trump’s go-to instrument of deconstruction and destruction.

And part of their plan involves another huge swath of layoffs — estimated by some administration officials to be as many as 300,000 by the end of the year — as punishment for the Democrats’ refusal to cave in to pressure to pass the Republicans’ budget by the end of the fiscal year.

We hear quite a lot about Vance, Rubio, Hegseth, Bondi, Kennedy, and Trump himself. But sometimes it’s the quiet ones who are most treacherous, and whom we should be watching most closely.

*. *. *

Through all of the agony of the last eight months, as I have witnessed my beautiful country being gutted by a cabal of rapacious, power-mad, uber-wealthy Draculas in modern guise, I have been haunted by one question that seems to me to have no logical answer:

Once they have achieved their goal of dismantling a government that has worked well for 250 years, breaking the country’s ties with all of its long-time allies, destroying its environment and infrastructure, and enslaving its populace . . . what will they have won?

And the only picture that comes to my mind is this:

But who will be left to rebuild it for them?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/3/25

If you want to know why I’ve been feeling like this lately . . .

. . . consider just three of yesterday’s headlines:

“Russia cut power to defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant,
Ukraine says” (AFP)

and

“Putin says Russia will respond swiftly if it thinks
Europe is provoking it” (Reuters)

and

“Munich Airport closed after wave of drone sightings,
officials say” (CNN)

*. *. *

And I haven’t even touched on the continuing mayhem right here in the United States.

Is it any wonder I’m ready to pack my bags and move to another planet? If only it were possible.

Just beam me up, Scotty.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/3/25

Back in 1972, when the United States was still mired in the hugely unpopular war in Vietnam, actress and anti-war activist Jane Fonda was ostracized for visiting communist North Vietnam, where she was photographed seated on a tank and spoke out against U.S. involvement in the conflict. Thereafter labelled “Hanoi Jane,” many accused her of treason, while others lauded her anti-war outspokenness at a time when organized protests against our involvement were rampant.

Fonda survived the years of castigation, and has never changed her “peacenik” views. She followed in the footsteps of the many Hollywood acting legends, such as Henry Fonda (her father), Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and others who had formed a Committee for the First Amendment 25 years earlier to combat the excesses of McCarthyism.

And now Fonda is bringing back their Committee in hopes of combatting the enemy in yet another internal war against the illegal, unconstitutional actions of an extreme right-wing administration in Washington.

Calling this “the most frightening moment of my life,” she shared with CNN a letter she has written to the Hollywood community, asking her peers to join her:

“I’m 87 years old. I’ve seen war, repression, protest, and backlash. I’ve been celebrated, and I’ve been branded an enemy of the state. But I can tell you this: this is the most frightening moment of my life.

“When I feel scared, I look to history. I wish there were a secret playbook with all the answers — but there never has been.” [Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN, October 1, 2025.]

She continued, underscoring the importance of solidarity and “binding together, finding bravery in numbers too big to ignore, and standing up for one another.

“That’s why I believe the time is now to relaunch the Committee for the First Amendment — the same Committee my father, Henry Fonda, joined with other artists during the McCarthy era, when so many were silenced or even imprisoned simply for their words and their craft.

“The stakes are too high, and silence is too costly. They’re betting on our fear and our silence. But our industry — and artists around the world — have a long history of refusing to be silenced, even in the darkest times.” [Id.]

Thus far, more than 550 Hollywood notables have joined the Committee, including Barbra Streisand, Glenn Close, John Legend, Rob Reiner, Rosie O’Donnell, Sean Penn, Spike Lee, Whoopi Goldberg . . . and too many more to name. In a statement by a spokesperson for the Committee, they said that Fonda’s hope was to address “the onslaught of attacks on free speech from the current administration” by putting on a “united front against government censorship, intimidation, and fear.” [Id.]

The statement continued:

“Free speech and free expression are the inalienable rights of every American of all backgrounds and political beliefs — no matter how liberal or conservative you may be. The ability to criticize, question, protest, and even mock those in power is foundational to what America has always aspired to be.” [Id.]

Back in 1972, I wasn’t sure how I felt about “Hanoi Jane.” On the one hand, I admired her courage in speaking out for her convictions; while on the other hand, I did not approve of her visit to North Vietnam.

But that was a different era, and a different fight. You have to give props to an 87-year-old who still, half a century later, stands by her beliefs, and has the courage to fight the good fight.

And what she believes in is a United States of America that adheres to the principles of the founding fathers who drafted and signed the Constitution that has stood us in such good stead for nearly 250 years.

I can’t fault her for that.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/2/25