This week, a nation that was formed 250 years ago in protest of a mad king (George III) welcomed his direct — and very sane — descendant, King Charles III, and cheered as he showed us what inspirational leadership looks like.

Let me start with a disclaimer: My feelings about royalty in today’s world are very much the same as my feelings about Christmas. Having been raised in the Jewish tradition, the holiday holds no religious significance for me. But I love the more secular inspiration behind it, of “peace on earth, good will toward all.” And I revel in the beauty of the season: the lights, the music, the sharing of our bounty with those we love and those in need.

Similarly, while I feel that royalty in the modern world is something of an anachronism, I do understand and respect the attachment of a people to their ancient history and traditions. And there is something awe-inspiring in the pageantry, the devotion to public service, and the continuity that invokes a sense of security and national identity.

While today’s kings and queens are largely considered to be no more than figureheads, divorced from the “real” — or more accurately, the sordid — world of politics, they provide the sort of moral compass we so desperately need in an age consumed by greed, malice, and an insatiable lust for power.

And that is what King Charles brought to the former American Colonies this week.

Yes, he had the expertise of the royal speech writers behind him. But his personal touch was evident in the words; and the passion, dignity, and quiet force with which he delivered them moved even the Republican side of the U.S. Congress to reward him with several standing ovations.

In his quiet manner, he continued that evening to exhibit a breathtaking combination of good breeding, subtle humor, and diplomatic savvy throughout the State dinner at the White House, while the resident oaf struggled to retain even a modicum of dignity.

So, thank you, Your Majesty, for making the trip despite our recent differences, and for bringing a much-needed touch of class and good sense to Washington.

All of which makes me wonder: If the colonists had been patient long enough to survive the reign of George III, deep-sixed the Revolution, and instead remained under British control, would we have been better off today?

Possibly not . . . but a comparison of the present state of our two countries — and yes, I have been to England and experienced it for myself — leads me to think that it would not have been a bad thing.

Not bad at all.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/30/26

What is truth? To me — and according to the English-language dictionary — it’s what can be scientifically or empirically proven: “a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like . . . ideal or fundamental reality apart from and transcending perceived experience,” etc. Everything else can be classified as faith, opinion, prejudice, or wishful thinking . . . in my humble opinion.

In today’s political environment, however, truth has become a rare commodity, with an over-abundance of lies and prejudices being too easily disseminated and enhanced by the ready availability of social media.

But how do we combat the evil forces of untruth? Once again, I found a beautifully simple answer in the writings of my old friend William Shakespeare, in a play with which I admit I am not familiar — thus sparing you my usual synopsis (you’re welcome):

“And I can teach thee . . . to shame the devil
By telling truth. Tell truth and shame the devil.
If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,
And I’ll be sworn I have power to shame him hence.
O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil!”

– Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part 1 – Act III, Scene 1

Which is why leaders are so desperately trying to silence those who speak the truth: because they know that, given the light of day, it will defeat them.

In L. Frank Baum’s classic The Wizard of Oz, all it took to melt the Wicked Witch of the West was a bucket of water; in real life, all we need are facts . . . and the courage to “tell truth and shame the devil.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/29/26

I’m thoroughly confused.

After a period of silence, a video of Anneesa Feenstra and the younger children appeared several days ago — obviously having been filmed some days or weeks earlier, judging from the weather and the clothes they were wearing — in which she announced that they were winding up their stay in North Carolina and heading back to Canada. There were even shots of Arend arriving at the campsite to drive them all back.

Then, three days ago, there was a YouTube video of their tenants, the Pulley family, back on the farm in Nizhny Novgorod, in which they excitedly told us that the Feenstras were due back “on Friday.” Again, the date was unclear, but based on the weather there, they also appeared to be in that transition period between winter and spring, when shoots are popping up from beneath the earth’s surface but the weather gods still occasionally hit you with a surprise snow squall. It looked like late March or early April in Russia as well.

Justin and Anita Pulley have been busy this winter, keeping the snow cleared from around the house and other farm buildings; tending to the cows, sheep, pigs and chickens (not to forget Lucy the dog); dealing with van and tractor troubles, a broken barn door, frozen water troughs . . . all the things that farmers deal with throughout a snowy winter season. So they will surely be happy to see the Feenstras again.

And then . . . this happened:

But yesterday, a new episode was posted on YouTube by Arend Feenstra — also showing bare trees and a dreary landscape as though filmed in late March or very early April — in which the family is seen in their camper, driving through Virginia’s Cumberland Gap as they head north toward Canada. And at long last, some of my questions were answered.

With Arend narrating, I learned that the video was made on April 6th — early April, as I had guessed. They planned to stay another couple of days before hitting the road for Canada, where he said he might do another week’s work before flying back to Russia.

(Question: Can they be sure of getting last-minute plane reservations? I hope so.)

He then reiterated what he has said before about the reason for the trip: that he needed to earn enough money for some much-needed farm equipment, to replenish their depleted savings, and to cover the $25,000 in plane fare plus other expenses of the trip. I have to say, Arend and son Wes must have worked their butts off to earn that kind of money in just over three months. I do hope they remember to pay their Canadian taxes next year.

And then Arend went on to answer the question some of his viewers have asked as to how they could leave the farm for such a long time. Expressing his gratitude to the Pulleys for taking over in their absence, he said that there would have been virtually nothing for them to do on the farm this winter, and that this would probably be their last chance to take advantage of the lull.

But there’s always busy work on a farm, as Justin Pulley will no doubt gladly testify. So what it all boils down to, again, is the opportunity — available in Canada, but not in their beloved Russia — to earn a substantial amount of money to carry them until their farm becomes profitable, hopefully this year.

*. *. *

So there you have the Feenstra update, at least through April 6th. I’m still left wondering when they actually arrived back at their ancestral home in Canada, and when they’re expected to return to their adopted home in Russia . . . if they’re not already there. These long periods of air silence are unusual for a family that has been so highly visible for so long, normally sharing with us all of the daily adventures of their hard-working, sometimes peripatetic lives.

From the time they first announced that they would be heading off on their months-long sabbatical to Canada and the U.S., I have been puzzled by the Feenstras’ scant explanations of the trip’s purpose, how they were able to afford it, and — most interestingly — how they were able to leave Russia and their farm for such an extended period. Arend’s most recent “answers” are no different from what he has said before, and I am still not satisfied that there is no government propaganda ploy behind it all. Between Russia’s restrictions on immigrants, and diplomatic relations with the West complicating travel, they would otherwise have had to untangle some major red tape in order to make it happen . . . just as they needed official approval and assistance to obtain their farm in the first place.

But then, nearly everything about the Feenstras of Ontario and Nizhny Novgorod raises questions that never seem to be answered. And that, of course, is part of the fascination. So I continue to look forward to the news, and videos, of their homecoming to the farm in their adopted Russian paradise. Meanwhile . . .

Добро пожаловать домой, Feenstras! (“Welcome home, Feenstras!”)

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/29/26

The following is sound advice for us all . . . but it is most sorely needed by the very people who will not heed it:

“A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most.”

– George Bernard Shaw

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/28/26

It’s not exactly a glass house — it’s a big white mansion with white columns and a missing wing — but its chief occupant is the master of stone-throwing. And he really hates it when someone returns fire.

Donald Trump has a hate-hate relationship with the media, missing no opportunity to insult and demean reporters and broadcasters who take him to task for his illegal and immoral abuse of the office and the country he swore to protect and preserve. And sometimes simple insults are not enough for him; he goes after their jobs and their reputations.

He has been trying to get Jimmy Kimmel fired for months. But Kimmel has survived, and has continued to call out the administration for every infraction, often using humor to make his point. This week, though, he may have taken it one step too far.

Don’t get me wrong — I am a fierce advocate of our right to free speech. In fact, I am a staunch and outspoken defender of our entire U.S. Constitution and every one of its Amendments. And I salute those who have a public voice and use it to shout the truth above all the chaos of today’s world.

But I also believe that our freedoms come with responsibilities, and that we should be big enough, and smart enough, not to stoop to the level of the very people we are criticizing.

We all heard recently that Trump was vicious enough to celebrate the death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller by saying, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!” But that should not compel us to follow suit by anticipating, wishing for, or hinting at Trump’s imminent demise.

Yet that is, in essence, what Kimmel did when he joked last week that first lady Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow.”

I admire Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and the others who stand up to pressure and refuse to be intimidated. But joking about someone’s death — even about the most despicable of people — is just bad juju.

Did Kimmel bring about the event, just a couple of days later, when a man tried to shoot his way into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel? No . . . I really don’t believe in hexes. But how would he have felt if something had gone terribly wrong, and Trump had been killed or wounded just days after Kimmel’s macabre comment?

Am I defending Donald Trump? Hell, no! As usual, he is now blaming the liberal left for creating the atmosphere of hatred — his so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome” — for fomenting the violent acts of a lone, mentally-disturbed individual. But that, in itself, is meant to stir up even more hatred among his MAGA goons and others on the conservative right. It is a vicious circle; and the man in the glass — or white — house is most responsible for keeping it spinning. In fact, he’s the one who started it.

Whether or not Jimmy Kimmel’s jest was inappropriate, Donald Trump — being guilty of some of the most poisonous remarks about countless other people — is in no position to criticize or to threaten action against anyone for exercising their equal right to free speech. But that is what he is once again doing, in yet another display of pettiness and the most blatant hypocrisy. And nothing I, or anyone else, might say will ever change him.

But it’s exhausting, and demoralizing . . . and I just wish it would stop.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/28/26

According to the late German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, April 27, 4977 B.C. — 7,003 years ago today — was the day the universe was created. [“This Day in History,” History.com, April 27, 2026.]

Yes, I know: modern science tells us that the “Big Bang” happened some 13.8 billion years ago, not a mere 7,000. But Kepler lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, so his resources were somewhat limited.

But he was no slouch. A student of Nicolaus Copernicus during his university years, and later a contemporary of Galileo Galilei, Kepler was the first to theorize that the planets moved around the sun in ellipses, not circles; and he calculated the relationship of the time a planet takes to orbit the sun to the average distance of the planet from the sun. He also did important work in the fields of mathematics and optics, including demonstrating how the human eye works. Pretty heady stuff for his time.

Yet somehow, the record of his suggested date for the creation of our universe has survived the centuries, and is commemorated — if not widely celebrated — today.

If nothing else, it’s a good excuse to do a little stargazing tonight . . . and perhaps to indulge in some extra Haagen Dazs, just for fun.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/27/26

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. As Russian forces continue to threaten an even greater catastrophe in Ukraine, I am once again reminded that we humans have learned nothing in all these years.

There has already been significant damage done by Russian troops to the sarcophagus that surrounds Reactor No. 4 — the shield that has been containing the massive amount of deadly radiation remaining inside, and was built to last at least 100 years under normal conditions. And although the Russian troops that briefly occupied the region have been ousted by Ukraine’s army, the path of the ongoing war cannot be predicted. It is a terrifying situation.

The words of Indian author and spiritualist Amit Ray seem so logical, so obvious . . . to any sane individual. But the people who should be paying attention — the world leaders creating the chaos in Ukraine and elsewhere — clearly are not. Simply put:

“Earth is the playground of our children and their children. We cannot allow it to be the playground of the nuclear arms of the evil forces.”

– Amit Ray, “Nuclear Weapons Free World – Peace on the Earth

The world has experienced other nuclear accidents — Three Mile Island and Japan come immediately to mind — though Chernobyl is far and away the worst . . . so far. Yet some of our leaders continue to bandy the “N word” around in threatening their adversaries as though they were talking about a child’s BB gun.

Do they not care about the futures of their own children and grandchildren? Is it humanly possible to be so blind, so ignorant, so unfeeling . . . so totally irresponsible?

Apparently so.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/27/26

Or vice-versa.

On Saturday, the White House announced that Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who were set to leave for Pakistan to undertake further negotiations with Iranian leaders, wouldn’t be going anywhere after all. It seemed that Iran’s chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, wouldn’t be there to meet with them.

He was, instead, on his way to St. Petersburg, Russia, for a meeting today with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

With his usual false bravado, Trump responded by telling Fox News:

“If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us. You know, there is a telephone. We have nice, secure lines. They know what has to be in the agreement. It’s very simple: They cannot have a nuclear weapon; otherwise, there’s no reason to meet.” [RFE/RL, April 27, 2026.]

But it appears that Tehran had already “hung up” on Washington.

These on-again-off-again “negotiations” between Iran’s seasoned professionals and Trump’s pair of poseurs are clearly going nowhere. Donald Trump, anticipating another Venezuelan cakewalk, started a war with a region about which he knows less than nothing, and without seeking the requisite consent of Congress or consulting any of his military, intelligence or diplomacy experts. It is a war that need never have been launched, if he hadn’t torn up the agreement that was already in place.

He knew not what he was doing then; and he hasn’t the foggiest notion of how to squirm out of it now without totally losing face.

But that’s what happens when you’re all ego and no substance.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/27/26

The word “genius” is used here in the most sarcastic sense, of course. Because I am not speaking of anyone who might actually fit that description: not an Albert Einstein, a Marilyn Vos Savant, or a Leonardo da Vinci.

Rather, I refer to a bona fide idiot named Dana White: high school troublemaker; college dropout; former bouncer, bellhop and boxer; now multi-millionaire president and CEO of the mixed martial arts organization known as Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC); and good buddy of Donald Trump.

Why do I call him an idiot? Because last night . . . as an invited guest at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel . . . when all hell broke loose as a shooter shot his way through a security checkpoint in an apparent attempt to kill members of the Trump administration . . . and as Secret Service and other law enforcement officers were ordering the 2,000+ attendees to get under the tables . . . Dana White stood his ground.

Not to confront the gunman, who never actually got as far as the ballroom where the event was being held. Oh, no . . . he was, by his own admission, an enthusiastic spectator, later telling reporters:

“All of a sudden, it just started getting noisy. Tables getting flipped over, guys running in with guns and they were screaming ‘Get down!’ I didn’t get down — it was fucking awesome. I literally took every minute of it in. It was a pretty crazy, unique experience . . . I thought the shooter was over by us or something.” [The Guardian, April 26, 2026.]

Right — it was “awesome” that yet another mentally-disturbed individual with access to deadly weapons had had all he could take of the world’s mayhem, and decided to try to put a stop to it.

“Awesome” that any number of those 2,000 people might have lost their lives last night.

“Awesome” that this is now the world we live in.

But to someone with the limited mental capacity and the total lack of empathy of Dana White, it is somehow “f*cking awesome,” simply because he is alive today, uninjured (thanks to law enforcement officers’ quick response), and still planning the scheduled UFC event at the White House on June 14th — supposedly to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary, but “coincidentally” on Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. (By the way, I can’t help wondering how much that little patriotic event is going to cost taxpayers.)

*. *. *

I am very relieved and happy that no one at that dinner was injured last night, and that the one officer who was shot was wearing a bullet-proof vest.

But I grieve for the fact that this is indeed the world we live in . . . a world where, as the old saying goes, the inmates are running the institution.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/26/26

To the people of Pripyat and the surrounding regions of Ukraine, April 26, 1986, was the end of life as they had always known it. The rest of the world continued to exist; but for them, it was Armageddon . . . the Apocalypse . . . the End of Days.

For four decades, the surviving victims of the explosion at Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant have been suffering the effects of the long-term neglect and failures of the Soviet/Russian regime.

Some — a few desperate, mostly elderly residents with nowhere else to go or simply too attached to their homes to leave — defied the authorities and either refused to leave or returned to live out their remaining years in the highly radioactive area they had once loved; the majority were relocated to begin life over elsewhere. How the handful of returnees have managed to survive is beyond my comprehension.

For the most part, the area around Chernobyl is a wasteland, expected to remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years: a visual reminder to the next 100 or more generations — if the Earth survives that long — of mankind’s failure to care for the only planet we have.

*. *. *

I have previously written about my 1993 visit to a hospital for child victims of Chernobyl in Kyiv — seven years after the explosion — and the short-term effect on my health of breathing that air for just a few days. The children I met then — those who survived — would be approaching middle age by now, likely having spent their entire lives battling various disabling illnesses. To them, I wish better days. And to those who didn’t make it to adulthood, know that your little faces are permanently etched in my memory, and that I wish you eternal peace.

To the others — the rescue workers and clean-up crews who lost their lives as a result of the event known to the world simply as “Chernobyl” — I commend you for your bravery and your sacrifice.

Requiescat in pace.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/26/26