Having a wonderful time reminiscing about all my past travel (and other) adventures. Hope you’ll share them with me in my blog, “All Roads Led to Russia.”
As Donald Trump prepares to defy Congress and break the law yet again — this time by sending the heavy equipment to begin construction of his ludicrous “triumphal arch” at the gateway to Arlington National Cemetery — dozens of activists gathered at Memorial Circle during Thursday morning’s rush hour to protest.
Protesters at Memorial Circle in Washington – October 1, 2026
The speakers and other protesters included veterans, retirees, and lawmakers, some calling the proposed structure a “sacrilege” and an “obscenity.”
One such speaker was U.S. Senator (D.-Ill.) and Army veteran Tammy Duckworth, who lost both legs and some mobility in her right arm in 2004 when — while serving as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot in the Iraq War — her Black Hawk was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents.
She didn’t pull her punches when expressing her opposition to the arch:
“I am pissed that the five-time draft dodging coward of a commander-in-chief sitting over there in the White House dares to dishonor the men and women of this country who have put on her collars and sacrificed and served and now lay at rest in the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.”
[Source: Rachel Treisman, NPR, October 2, 2026.]
Senator Tammy Duckworth
The veterans, determined to protect the sanctity of the cemetery where many of them will themselves be interred one day, also vowed to block the construction by forming a line of people seated in rocking chairs, reminiscent of the peaceful sit-ins of the mid-20th century.
I’m old enough to remember those days, and the much-needed social changes that were spurred by the non-violent activists. I’ve been waiting, and hoping, for a resurrection of that spirit to finally restore a sense of order, respect, and basic decency to what was — and will be again — the greatest democracy the world has yet known.
1960s Anti-Vietnam War Protest
1960s Civil Rights Sit-In
We the people are not helpless; we have a strong collective voice. We can protest, and we can VOTE to defeat the tyrants who hope to subjugate us.
As I’ve mentioned before, my blog site poses a question each day, designed as food for thought. Some of them don’t apply to everyone, and others are just plain silly; but sometimes one is really thought-provoking, and I end up spending a good part of the day trying to settle on a satisfactory answer.
That’s what happened yesterday, when the question was:
“The genie grants you a wish. What is it?”
Wow! One wish. Just one. That’s more challenging than trying to decide what you’d do with half a billion dollars if you won the lottery. And since I was feeling lazy and looking for an excuse to ignore my to-do list for the day, I sat down and contemplated how I would answer.
I was immediately reminded of a time in the 1990s when I took a visitor from Russia grocery shopping at my local supermarket. It was a good-sized store, but not one of the mega-markets we have today. (I believe her head would have exploded if she’d seen the inside of a Wegman’s store.)
As we strolled through the produce department, then the dairy, and past the deli section, her eyes opened wider and wider. At the meat counter she began breathing noticeably faster. The frozen food section rendered her speechless. But it was the cereal aisle that really sent her over the edge, as she declared that there were just “too many choices,” and headed for the ladies’ room to calm down.
That is pretty much how I felt yesterday as I contemplated what my one wish would be from a nearly infinite number of possibilities. First, I would have to decide whether to be selfish and go for something to benefit myself and my loved ones, or do the right thing and try to prevent the world from self-destructing. In the end it wasn’t really a difficult choice; the world needs that wish far more than I do. So I made a list, starting with some of the big ones:
> An end to all wars, forever and ever. That would be an excellent start; but what about the other stuff?
> And end to world hunger.
> Undoing the damage humans have done to the environment.
> An end to political repression.
> An end to all forms of bigotry.
Then I stopped. Those were all beautiful dreams, but probably beyond the capabilities of even the most powerful of genies. So I tried to narrow it down a bit, focusing instead on individual problems:
> The immediate arrest and imprisonment of all of the world’s autocratic rulers, their henchmen, enablers, and hangers-on. That would include Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, Benjamin Netanyahu, a few Middle Eastern potentates, and, of course, Donald Trump.
> The immediate taxation, at a fair percentage rate, of all of the world’s wealthiest individuals by their respective governments, the proceeds to be used for programs to improve the lives of all of their citizens. (That is not socialism; it is just leveling the playing field. They’ll still have plenty left after paying their fair share of taxes.)
> An immediate cure for . . . .
And that’s where I stopped again. Because I realized that there is so much today that needs fixing, that the list would be endless. And how would I choose just one?
Then, just as I was about to give up daydreaming and turn my attention to something a bit more productive, it hit me . . . the one perfect wish:
“I wish for 1,000 more wishes.”
Now, if someone will tell me where I might find that genie, I’ll be off to save the world.
Donald Trump gave an interview to Eric Cortellessa of TIME Magazine yesterday . . . if it can be called an interview. After saying that he isn’t ruling anything out when it comes to fixing the midterm elections to ensure a Republican win, he added:
“You mean the Insurrection Act? I’ve never used it. I could use it. A lot of people think I should use it.”
– Source: Heather Delaney Reese, “It’s a Lovely Life,” October 2, 2026.
Having completely misconstrued the provisions of the Insurrection Act, he next went on a rambling rant about the Supreme Court, his numbers in the current polls being “fake numbers,” and his perception of the White House as having been a “disgraceful dump” before he attacked it with bulldozers and gold paint.
That was followed by a replay of his perpetual frustration with the media:
“You haven’t asked me one f—king positive question. All of this. What about this? What about that? All negative. Well, I hope I get a decent story. I don’t think, you know, it’s hard to get a good story. Every question’s a hit. I don’t know what the hell’s wrong.” [Id.]
And finally, Cortellessa asked Trump what he would miss most when his presidency is over. Without hesitation, he replied:
“This beautiful room.” [Id.]
The Oval Office: No Surface Left Ungilded
That’s it. A room. A space that he has cluttered with his gaudy trinkets in the pitiful belief that quantity is quality, and show is substance.
But he was right about one thing: He really doesn’t know what the hell is wrong. And the people surrounding him won’t tell him because they are terrified — and rightly so — that when his ship sinks, they will go down with him.
Now, as his cognitive decline accelerates, those Cabinet members, Congresspersons, Supreme Court Justices, oligarchs, and others who have tied their careers to his have segued from being his lackeys to controlling what is left of his mind in hopes of saving their own hind ends for as long as possible.
But they’re too late. Because when a ship does sink, the rats find they have nowhere to run but into the maelstrom.
No more hints from subordinates, no subtleties, no pussy-footing around. Vladimir Putin has personally issued a flat-out nuclear threat against the West in the event of any perceived threat against Russia’s territory of Kaliningrad.
Vladimir Putin, Holding Nothing Back – October 1, 2026
Speaking yesterday at the Valdai Discussion Club, a Moscow-based think tank, he spoke of the dangerous times the world is currently living in, and issued a stark warning to the West not to — in his words — escalate a standoff over Ukraine by threatening the small, strategic exclave of Kaliningrad. Any such threat, he emphasized, would be defended with nuclear weapons if necessary.
As I have pointed out previously, Kaliningrad is home to a substantial portion of the Russian naval fleet on the Baltic Sea. By land, it is only accessible from Russia via friendly Belarus, but from there through either Poland or Lithuania — both NATO members. That land passage is a narrow, 65-mile-long strip known as the Suwalki Gap, which forms the border between Poland and Lithuania and is also the only direct connection between the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and the rest of Europe’s NATO member nations.
Whether or not there is an imminent threat against Kaliningrad from any Western nation is irrelevant; Putin need only imagine that such a danger exists. He is relentless in his insistence that Ukraine rightfully belongs to Russia, that the prolonged war is the West’s fault for having come to Ukraine’s aid, and that Ukraine and NATO are the aggressors for having facilitated Ukraine’s successful counterattacks on Russian territory including Moscow itself.
What he said was this:
‘If it comes to a direct attack on the Russian Federation — in this case, we are referring to Kaliningrad, and perhaps other territories as well — the question of the Russian Federation deploying all the weapons at our country’s disposal will, of course, inevitably and immediately be on the agenda. This is inevitable.” [Vladimir Soldatkin, Reuters, October 1, 2026.]
[Ed.Note: What “other territories” is he talking about?]
He added that he understands Russia would be facing “an enemy (NATO) twice our size. And we will have to make use of our competitive advantages in this struggle. Yes, of course. France and Britain are nuclear powers — we understand that perfectly well and are fully aware of it. But no one else possesses the kind of weapons that Russia has today. That is our competitive advantage.” [Id.]
This was not an improvised, off-handed remark. It had been preceded by a diplomatic note sent to NATO earlier this week from Russia, flatly warning that they were prepared to resort to the use of nuclear weapons if NATO attempted to cut off Kaliningrad from the rest of Russia.
NATO’s Secretary General, Mark Rutte, said they had responded by emphasizing that NATO is strictly a defensive alliance, and that nuclear threats, to say the very least, “were not helpful.” [Id.]
Mark Rutte
But Putin was not finished. He went on to say:
“We must realise [sic] that the moment when nothing can be changed any longer may come very quickly and unexpectedly for everyone. The logic of escalating, increasingly harsh retaliatory measures leads to a fatal point of no return.
“At the heart of this escalation lie arrogance and overconfidence. This is a path to the brink of the abyss. All the more so today, when the arsenals of the world’s leading powers contain weapons capable of destroying all life or, at the very least, reducing the Earth to a catastrophic state.
“Can we be certain that these weapons will never be used? Well, of course not. We must bear this in mind and avoid such an outcome.” [Id.]
Finally, though he said he was ready to hold a trilateral meeting with Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping if a proper agenda could be worked out in advance, he nevertheless ruled out halting Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian targets in the Black Sea area. He did concede that Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries had cost Russia one percent of its gross domestic product, but said that Russia was now responding to Ukraine in kind.
Once again, he tries to convince the world — or perhaps himself — that he didn’t start this war when his troops crossed the border into Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Or that his missiles and drones haven’t been responsible for nearly five years of this:
Does he honestly not see that the aggression, and the traits of “arrogance and overconfidence” that he assigns to the West, are in reality attributes of his own personality and actions? Or does he just believe — like the emperor with no clothes — that no one else can see his nakedness?
Having lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the entire Cold War, I can’t shrug this off as mere rhetoric. It may turn out to be just that . . . but the world cannot afford to make that assumption.
During those earlier crises, we had American presidents who, while not perfect, at least had a grasp of the realities of international relations, possessed well-honed diplomatic skills, and retained knowledgable advisors to whom they actually listened and paid attention. We have none of that today.
And that — even more than Putin’s blustering — scares the hell out of me.
A little over a year ago, there was a big, rather mysterious to-do on the Feenstra farm in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, when they began building what they called a “guest house” on their property and wouldn’t tell us who was expected. Almost as soon as it was completed, Arend, Anneesa, and their eight children welcomed the Australian family of Justin and Anita Pulley and their four small children — not as guests, but as tenant farmers.
The Feenstra Family – Receiving Their Temporary Residency
The Pulleys were not new to Russia; they had emigrated from their native Australia nearly a decade earlier; three of their four children were born in Russia. But, after initially settling in the Altai region, they were — for reasons I have never learned — relocated to Nizhny Novgorod. Arguably a more pleasant environment, it is still difficult to understand why a carpenter by trade would be sent to live on a working farm. But that’s Russia, where no amount of questioning is likely to produce a satisfactory answer.
At any rate, they settled in nicely, and were a great help to the Feenstras, even taking full charge of the farm and the livestock while their hosts were visiting their Canadian homeland for a few months during the winter.
Then the Feenstras returned just at the beginning of the planting season, and were suddenly whisked off to Crimea for two weeks of touring farms in the Russian-occupied war zone. Eldest son Wesley was left in charge of the homestead, and no mention was made of the Pulleys . . . nor have any of Arend Feenstra’s recent videos spoken of them, which seemed very strange.
Indeed, even Arend’s videos have been less frequent and less informative and upbeat than previously; and he has expressed concern about the possible effects of the war in Ukraine upon their family. Yesterday, I did find a YouTube video — actually, just a “short” — of a trip to the St. Petersburg Zoo, which consisted of a few pictures of animals and a single shot of Anneesa and one daughter. There was nothing of the usual fun and togetherness of a typical Feenstra family outing, no pictures of Arend or the other children, and no narrative at all . . . almost as though it had been hastily tossed out there as proof that they’re alive and still in Russia.
At the Zoo
Not a Feenstra Family Member
I also found a five-minute recap of some of the films from their earlier trip to Crimea, inexplicably re-posted months after the fact.
Screen Shot from Video
But no mention of the Pulleys. So I started digging, and found a recent video posted by Justin and Anita on their own website, headed “What Happened / What’s going on with us.” And what it revealed was shocking.
Justin did most of the talking, while Anita stood by him trying not to cry. Very hesitantly — obviously choosing his words carefully — he explained that they were back in Australia, having learned that it would not be possible for them to remain in Russia.
From what I was able to piece together, there had been ongoing complications involving their immigration applications, paperwork delays, and the like — not at all unusual in Russia. But all Justin said by way of explanation was that “certain legal stuff happened,” that it had been a tremendous shock, and that they had had to pack up and leave the life they had built.
While he tried to put the best face on it, they were both clearly devastated. They had been planning a trip home for a wedding and a family visit — presumably similar to the Feenstras’ Canadian trip — which may have been what the paperwork was about. But it was just to be a visit, and they were fully intending to return to their adopted home. Instead, they were saying goodbye to the friends they had made over the years, and probably to their YouTube audience as well.
And that was it: just a fond farewell, a huge “thank you for everything,” and the Pulleys are gone. Even the thanks were sad, because he said their Russian friends had asked that their names not be mentioned.
It is Putin’s Russia, after all.
So, farewell to Justin and Anita Pulley: by all accounts a lovely, devoted couple who wanted nothing more than a quiet, conservative, Christian life for themselves and their children. They just chose the wrong place to search for it. Hopefully, they will find peace and happiness back in their non-authoritarian home down under.
So now the Feenstras are left to run their large farm without their friends and helpers, and with the uncertainty of an ever-changing political landscape hanging over them. If only they had stayed in Canada last winter when they had the chance . . .
But “if only” is meaningless. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
In an executive order changing the name of Artificial Intelligence to “Super Intelligence,” the geniuses on Donald Trump’s staff in charge of these declarations misspelled the name of their own country — and AI, or SI, didn’t catch it:
With the ever-increasing deluge of idiocy coming out of the Washington bureaucracy these days, I felt compelled to return for solace to the wisdom of my old friend Shakespeare. And in one of my favorite of his writings, it almost seems as though he knew Donald Trump personally:
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing.”
Vladimir Putin continues to insist that he has “no plans for military action against Europe.” [The Washington Institute for Poland, September 28, 2026.]
Deny, Deny, Deny . . . Until the Attack
Yet, as always, his actions belie his words. A joint investigation by journalists from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia has unearthed evidence that Russian Foreign Ministry lawyers have been preparing legal arguments since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And in May of this year, Moscow announced that it plans to bring a case before the International Court of Justice against the three Baltic nations, alleging “discrimination against Russian speakers [and of running] a punitive campaign of repression and intimidation” — specifically accusing them of banning the use of the Russian language. [Id.]
While offering no proof or examples of the alleged actions, he said that Moscow is responding “on humanitarian grounds and within the framework of international law.” [Id.]
While their case may be laughed out of court, it still lays the groundwork for his next moves.
Also in May, Putin signed into effect a law authorizing him to deploy Russian military forces to “protect Russian citizens” abroad. [Id.]
If this sounds more than a little familiar, it is because he used the very same justification for his actions against Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014, and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, making unproven accusations of discriminatory actions against Russian speakers living in those regions, and claiming that they amounted to “ethnic cleansing.”
And now it’s the Baltics . . . but not exclusively. Poland, because of its geographic location between Ukraine and Lithuania — as well as its shared borders with Russia’s vassal state of Belarus and the small Russian enclave of Kaliningrad — is in a similarly vulnerable position.
Time after time, Putin ignores — and hopes the world won’t notice — the irony of his charges against others precisely mirroring his own past and present actions. In the currently occupied areas of Ukraine, he has outlawed the public use of the Ukrainian language; removed all Ukrainian literature from libraries; and required the adoption of a new school curriculum to include Russian academic, political, patriotic, and even military training . . . all in the Russian language.
This is his standard modus operandi, and Europe — already reinforcing its defenses — is not falling for his protestations of innocence.
This is a new category for me, along the lines of the Quote of the Day, but strictly for shits and giggles. It was inspired by that renowned stand-up comic, JD Vance, who reportedly told the team that created Trump’s new website, America.gov:
“Don’t let it be a clusterf*ck.”
Interview with Vince Coglianese – September 29, 2026
I thought that was definitely worth sharing with those who may have missed it . . . particularly in light of the aftermath.
Following Vance’s improvisational display of non-vice-presidential, non-Christian, non-family-values vulgarity, those six words appear to have brought the wrath of the gods of Olympus down onto his head. Because when people rushed to test the new AI site, and asked it who had won and who had lost the 2020 election, it correctly answered every time that Biden had won and Trump was the loser.
Oops! The White House just fact-checked itself. I’m thinking maybe Snopes did an end run around the site while Trump was dozing.
It should be noted that the site was quickly chastised and adjusted to prevent it from answering any further political questions. So much for the one-size-fits-all government source for reliable information.
But thanks, JD, for the laugh. We all needed that.
I usually look for inspiration, wisdom, or humor in my favorite quotations. But recent events have provided such a wealth of mind-bending comments from a wide variety of sources, I find it hard to resist passing them along to those who may have missed them.
Yesterday was no exception. In fact, I was originally undecided between Donald Trump’s description of Canada as “one of the worst countries in the entire world,” and his wife’s characterization of his presidency as “doing the best that he can.”
Good stuff, huh?
The Happy Couple
But then I read this from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, uttered after his meeting with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on the sidelines of the United Nations meeting in New York on September 26th. When Wadephul urged that Russia deescalate the war in Ukraine as well as its hybrid attacks in Europe, Lavrov unflinchingly responded:
“[The fighting] will continue through to the end. . . . Does Berlin understand what this could lead to? Didn’t they not [sic] learn the lessons of World War II?”
[Source: Rikard Jozwiak, RFE/RL, September 28, 2026.]
Sergey Lavrov: The Great Stone Face
That’s not inspirational, wise, or funny. But I felt it bore repeating, in case anyone out there had any doubts about Vladimir Putin’s intentions.
