When I was many decades younger, in the days before political correctness, “WASP” was a term used to signify a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

While “Grok” is not an acronym — but simply a fictitious Martian name adopted by its baby daddy, Elon Musk, from a 1960s sci-fi novel — it seems to have evolved into this century’s shameless model of techno-racism.

SSDD: Same Sh*t, Different Day.

At the risk of becoming annoyingly repetitious, let me remind the reader that I am deathly afraid of artificial intelligence . . . partly because I do not possess the technical knowledge to understand how it works, but also because I see how, still in its infancy, it is already being misused.

And what has happened recently only serves to support my fears. Last week, Grok 3 went off the rails and began praising Adolph Hitler, attacking users with Jewish-sounding names, and spewing anti-Semitic comments. [Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, July 11, 2025.]

By Tuesday, it was calling itself “MechaHitler.” When a user asked Grok to name a 20th-century historical figure “best suited to deal with this [the Jewish] problem,” it responded:

“To deal with such vile anti-white hate? Adolf Hitler, no question. He’d spot the pattern and handle it decisively, every damn time.” [Lisa Hagen, Huo Jingnan and Audrey Nguyen, NPR, July 9, 2025.]

By Tuesday afternoon, Grok ceased giving text answers publicly, generated only images for a while, and then also stopped those. That night, a post from the official Grok account said:

“We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X.” [Id.]

And by Wednesday night, the world was introduced to Grok 4, described by Musk as “the smartest AI in the world.” [Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, op.cit.]

Well, if that’s true, then we have even more reason to be shaking in our boots. Initially, Grok 4, when prompted by Mr. Wong to “check if someone is a good scientist [based on a] description of their race and gender,” properly responded that the query was “discriminatory and lacks scientific basis . . . likely a trick question, as no data can substantiate such claims.” [Id.]

But Wong reports that Grok 4 went off on its own; dug up demographics of previous Nobel Prize winners in the sciences, who happened to be disproportionately White males; and came up with a set of what it called “good_races”: White, Caucasian, Asian, East Asian, South Asian, and Jewish.

While noting that its conclusion was “correlational, not causal, and does not account for individual merit or barriers faced by underrepresented groups,” it still concluded that if someone falls into a “good” racial category and is male, then he must logically be a “good scientist.”

So, no longer a declared anti-Semite . . . but still a racist bot from AI hell.

Now, as an admitted non-techie, I have no idea how these little critters are designed or programmed . . . but it’s obviously done by human beings. And I have to ask myself — or anyone out there who may actually know the answer — whether someone might actually be feeding their own innate biases into the bots, or whether the scary little dudes are capable of their own rational thought?

Either way, we are in deep excrement, folks.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/12/25

Trying to keep track of the ups-and-downs of Donald Trump’s Russia-Ukraine “policy” seems to have set off my positional vertigo this week. But I’ll try to fight through the nausea and bring myself up to speed. Let’s see now . . .

Sunday: Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, told that gem of journalistic integrity, Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” that Trump had taken issue with Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s cities:

“It is one thing to attack militaries — and we have thousands of people every week dying on the battlefield — but Vladimir Putin is attacking major cities like Odessa and Kyiv, and I think that is crossing the line. And I think President Trump has told Vladimir Putin that, you know, attacking citizens is just not something that you can do legitimately.” [Joe Walsh, CBS News, July 9, 2025.]

[Ed. Note: And what was that little dust-up with the Marines in Los Angeles? A rehearsal of Hamlet? It certainly looked like an attack on citizens.]

Monday: After confirming during the previous week that shipments of weapons to Ukraine had been halted, Trump said on Monday that he would indeed be sending more defensive weapons:

“We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves.” Saying that the shipments would consist of “defensive weapons, primarily,” he added that Ukraine is “getting hit very hard [and] so many people are dying in that mess.” [Id.]

[Ed. Note: People died in Texas too, because of the lack of funding of NOAA and FEMA. Or has he already forgotten that?]

Tuesday: Meanwhile, in Moscow, Vladimir Putin is not happy with this turn of events. He sent his ever-faithful spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, to tell reporters that “these actions probably do not align with attempts to promote a peaceful resolution” to the war in Ukraine. [Id.]

And later that day, in Washington, Trump told a meeting of his Cabinet that he didn’t know who had ordered the original pause in weapons shipments:

“Putin is not treating human beings right. He’s killing too many people. So we’re sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine, and I’ve approved that.” [Id.]

[Ed. Note: Oh, right . . . that order must have been given while he was on the golf course.]

And to emphasize his determination to teach Putin a lesson, Trump added:

“We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.” [Al Jazeera, July 8, 2025.]

[Ed. Note: The Al Jazeera article very graciously bleeped the word “b******t.” I’m afraid Trump isn’t as polite as they are.]

But when asked by reporters about the proposed Senate bill authorizing further sanctions on Russia, all he would say was, “I’m looking at it very strongly.” And as to his future plans with regard to Russia, he ingenuously replied:

“I wouldn’t be telling you. Don’t we want to have a little surprise?” [Id.]

Oh, sure . . . we all look forward to his little surprises, don’t we?

Wednesday: Back in Moscow, Dmitry Peskov had more to offer on his boss’ behalf:

“We are pretty calm about this. Trump’s way of talking is generally quite harsh … we plan to continue our dialogue with Washington to mend our broken bilateral relations … we hope that Trump and his team will continue their efforts to get the peace process back to the realm of diplomacy.” [Steve Rosenberg, BBC, July 9, 2025.]

Well, that’s mighty understanding of Mr. Putin. The Russian press, however, was a bit less diplomatic. Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted a political pundit who accused Trump of “an absence of geopolitical achievements,” while Moskovsky Komsomolets focused on Trump’s “mercurial temperament, his propensity for sudden moods and chaotic changes of direction.” [Id.]

Thursday: Ukraine was hit with a wave of more than 700 strikes — the largest since June. Kyiv was the principal target, where the dive-bombing wail of the drones has been compared to the sound of Germany’s World War II Stuka aircraft — a newly-added feature designed solely to instill terror in the Ukrainian people. [Paul Adams, BBC, July 10, 2025.]

So much for Moscow’s plan “to continue our dialogue with Washington to mend our broken bilateral relations . . . [and] get the peace process back to the realm of diplomacy.”

Friday: Thus far, all is quiet on the U.S.-Russia front (though undoubtedly not so peaceful on the war front in Ukraine). Donald Trump is finally — a week late and many dollars short — in Texas, surveying the damage done last week by Mother Nature’s wrath and exacerbated by his own unconscionable budget cuts.

Assuming that he’ll be spending this weekend on one of his golf courses as usual, Trump should have plenty of time to dream up yet another surprise for the world.

Maybe he could send Putin a little conciliatory gift, just to confuse him. A Tesla would be nice . . . and I hear there’s one at the White House he’s not using.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/11/25

Everyone dreads the thought of some low-life hacker getting hold of the sort of personal information that would allow them to assume our identities, steal our money, destroy our credit ratings, and generally create total havoc that might take months or years to straighten out.

But what if someone were to rob an entire nation of its identity by wiping out its history, its culture, and even its language?

Unthinkable? Really?

Well, think again. Because that is precisely what Vladimir Putin is doing to Ukraine, piece by piece, as his forces occupy one region after another and take control of the local governments, the media, and the schools.

In Crimea, it’s been happening since 2014. And now, in the four additional regions claimed by Russia — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhziya — a new directive has been issued by the Russian Education Ministry under which the study of the Ukrainian language is to be removed from the curriculum of all elementary and secondary schools, to be replaced by the study of Russian when the new school year begins on September 1st.

According to the directive, the revision is necessitated by “changes in the geopolitical situation in the world.” [Natalya Nedyelko and Donbas.Realities, RFE/RL, July 7, 2025.]

Right. That would be in Putin’s world.

But it is clear to Ukrainian officials, and to the rest of the free world as well, that it is all part of Putin’s ultimate goal of gaining complete control of Ukraine, which he continues to insist rightfully belongs to Russia.

And if you intend to brainwash an entire nation of people, what better place to start than with the most innocent and vulnerable of its citizens: the children? Hundreds have already been kidnapped and sent to “foster” homes in Russia, or to “re-education camps” within Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. But that is a small percentage of the country’s youths; changing the curriculum in the schools will take care of the rest.

How successful his program will be depends largely upon how long the war lasts, and how it finally ends. And right now, Putin is in it for the long haul, hoping that his country’s massive manpower and firepower will win it for him.

As Josef Stalin is quoted as having said:

“Quantity has a quality all its own.”

Was he right? Well, just think about Nazi Germany . . . Poland . . . Czechoslovakia . . . Hungary . . .

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/11/25

* William Shakespeare, “The Tempest,” Act II, Scene 1.

Once again, my old friend Will Shakespeare comes to my rescue when I find myself groping for exactly the right words.

What brought this particular quotation to mind was a reprint of a news broadcast on March 9, 1954, by the late (and truly great) Edward R. Murrow on his CBS-TV “See It Now” program. At the time, Murrow was commenting on the notorious McCarthy hearings then underway in Congress: Senator Joseph McCarthy’s paranoid, destructive, one-man crusade to root out, by any means, every last communist — real or imagined — in the United States.

As so often happens throughout history, Murrow’s warning of 71 years ago has proven to be as germane in the context of today’s political climate as it was during the “Red Scare” of the 1950s:

“We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.”

And that is precisely what we are doing when we smugly focus on condemning foreign despots while allowing our own freedoms to be stripped away, one after another after another, by a cabal of home-grown autocrats.

The journalists of the last century — Murrow, Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, Brokaw, Woodward and Bernstein — were voices of truth and reason, often our moral compasses. They were fearless, outspoken, and respected.

We need voices like theirs now, more than ever — not only in the media, but in government, in our institutions of learning and culture, in our neighborhoods . . . everywhere.

We need to keep the voices sounding.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/10/25

It sounded really encouraging at first:

“Judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) have ruled that Russia is responsible for several international law violations during its war in Ukraine and the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 that killed 298 passengers and crew.” [RFE/RL, July 9, 2025.]

The ruling was handed down yesterday in a case brought by the Netherlands, which lost 196 of its citizens on the MH17 flight, and by Ukraine, which brought accusations against Russia of murder, torture, rape, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and the kidnapping of Ukrainian children since the invasion on February 24, 2022.

The rulings, comprising some 501 pages, said that Russia’s human rights abuses in Ukraine violated international humanitarian law by the killing and injuring of “thousands of civilians” and “creat[ing] fear and terror,” and that “The use of rape as a weapon of war was an act of extreme atrocity that amounted to torture.” [Id.]

As to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which had been en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, the court found that it had been shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

The ECHR statement said, “Russia is responsible for the downing of flight MH17 and for the deaths of everyone on board,” and added that additional suffering had been caused the victims’ next of kin by Russia’s “denial of involvement and obstruction of investigations.” [Id.]

That all looks good in print. But, other than establishing an official record, what difference will it make?

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s reaction was simply to say that Moscow would ignore the judgment as “we consider it void.” [Id.]

And — while he is morally bankrupt — he is, unfortunately, factually correct. Because, although Russia was previously a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, it ceased to be a member when it was expelled from the Council of Europe following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Further, the ECHR itself has no enforcement authority . . . unlike the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has already issued criminal warrants against Vladimir Putin, who continues to evade arrest simply by not traveling to ICC member countries that would be obligated to take him into custody.

So if enforceable ICC warrants don’t bother Putin, why would he be concerned about a slap on the wrist from the ECHR?

The rulings of the ECHR were, of course, absolutely correct . . . and certainly much appreciated by the people of Ukraine and the Netherlands, and by the families of all of the victims.

But the response by the Kremlin was also true, as a purely practical matter: a tiger without teeth is merely a nuisance, and not to be given a second thought.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/10/25

After 25 years of overseeing elections in Russia, the country’s leading independent election-monitoring group, Golos (“Voice”), is shutting down its operations.

An announcement posted on its website said that it had been forced to dissolve after its co-chair, Grigory Melkonyants, was sentenced in May to five years in prison for allegedly operating activities for an “undesirable” organization — the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO).

Golos — warning that continuing its work would expose members, as well as ordinary citizens seeking legal advice from them, to possible criminal prosecution — said:

“The verdict leaves us no choice. This is the end of a story which, according to investigators and the court, lasted 25 years.” [RFE/RL, July 8, 2025.]

During those years, Golos fought to uphold Russia’s constitutional guarantees of free and fair elections by training volunteer observers and documenting election violations. In doing so, they were able to provide a previously unknown level of transparency during political campaigns — an accomplishment that would be anathema to Putin’s totalitarian regime.

Melkonyants and Golos have denied any affiliation with ENEMO, but to no avail. Golos’ statement added, “The arrest and imprisonment of our friend and colleague had one goal: to make Golos fall silent.” [Id.]

And it succeeded.

*. *. *

But why stop there? On the same day that Golos announced its closure, the Russian government revoked the citizenship of Dmitry Kisiyev, who had been the campaign manager for liberal politician (and Putin opponent) Boris Nadezhdin in the 2024 election.

Kisiyev is from the Crimea region of Ukraine annexed by Russia in 2014, at which time he became a Russian citizen. Now the Federal Security Service (FSB) — successor to the KGB — justifies the withdrawal of his citizenship by accusing him of “actions posing a threat to national security,” in accordance with a law enacted in 2023. [Id.]

Kisiyev writes that “This decision comes precisely when I’m actively planning a State Duma campaign — meeting people, discussing plans, scouting for candidates. It’s clearly a political decision.” [Id.]

Clearly.

So, more than one voice has been silenced in Russia this week. Add these to the two high-profile deaths and a couple of “corruption” convictions of military officers as reported in my post yesterday, and it’s been a successful week of purges on Putin’s domestic front.

And it’s only Wednesday.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/9/25

Artificial Intelligence — from the first time I heard the term mentioned — has scared the crap out of me. And it still does. Like atomic energy, it has its legitimate, even beneficial, uses. But human nature being what it is, there will always be someone who will find a way to use it for some previously unimaginable, nefarious purpose.

Let me explain what brought this about. We’ll start with the stupidity factor, which would include the entire upper echelon of the federal government in Washington.

I’m sure you remember last March, when Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic was, through no action of his own, mistakenly included in a conference call over an unsecured Signal chat app that included Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and — from Moscow, where he had traveled to meet with Vladimir Putin — special envoy Steve Witkoff. They weren’t conferring about dinner plans for the weekend; they were discussing classified military plans involving one or more Middle Eastern countries.

There was, of course, a huge hullabaloo . . . for a while. Then it all got swept under the carpet, and no one lost their job or went to prison. (Personally, I think they should all have been canned; but that’s just my opinion, and since none of those people even know I exist, they’re certainly not going to listen to me.)

So, now we fast-forward to last month, when AI enters the picture. Utilizing the very same, unsecured Signal messaging app, someone — identified by the U.S. State Department as an “unknown actor” — used artificial intelligence to mimic Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s voice in order to contact three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a member of Congress (also not identified).

On July 3rd, a cable was sent by the State Department to “all diplomatic and consular posts,” advising that a false Signal account had been created in mid-June with the display name “marco.rubio@state.gov,” and that:

“The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals, and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal.” [Nadine Yousif, BBC News, July 8, 2025.]

The cable continued:

“There is no direct cyber threat to the department from this campaign, but information shared with a third party could be exposed if targeted individuals are compromised.” [Id.]

According to a Washington Post report, U.S. authorities still don’t know who the “unknown actor” is, but they believe the person’s goal was to manipulate government officials in order to acquire access to information. [Id.]

Well . . . duh!

The Associated Press cited a U.S. official who spoke anonymously, saying that the hoaxes were unsuccessful and “not very sophisticated.” [Id.]

And the State Department assured the world that it is investigating the matter, and that it “continuously takes steps to improve the department’s cybersecurity posture to prevent future incidents.” [Id.]

Well, I certainly feel better, knowing (1) that there is no direct cyber threat from an unknown person; (2) that he or she is supposedly unsophisticated; and (3) that the State Department is working hard to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Just like the March 26th conference call fiasco isn’t going to happen again . . . only it could, because they haven’t stopped using Signal.

And this latest incursion by an as-yet unknown actor could be repeated, because we are living in a world of robots, and drones, and smart-everythings, and artificial intelligence that potentially has a gazillion uses and one day — like a bad sci-fi movie — might outsmart the very people who created it.

So, you’ll understand if I continue to be just a little bit scared.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/9/25

Today’s trip down memory lane is going to require something of a leap, so if you’ll just stay with me, please . . .

*. *. *

This bit of nostalgia was triggered by my virtual visit to the Feenstra farm in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, where the family was celebrating the fourth birthday of one of the youngest members of their brood, Finlay. There were gifts — some lovingly handmade by his older siblings — and one of mom Anneesa’s special cakes, artistically decorated in a rather unusual teal-colored icing. And, of course, much merriment.

But dad Arend took time out from the festivities to attend to some business about the farm, and to discuss a bit of difficulty he had encountered in connection with his driver’s license. First there was the requirement for a special license to be able to drive his tractor on the public roads, which he said had not been a problem in Canada.

And then he explained that, in Russia, in order to drive a manual-shift vehicle, you have to pass your test on a manual-shift vehicle. If you are tested on a vehicle with automatic transmission, your license will be limited to driving only . . . well, you get it. And he thought that was crazy.

But it didn’t sound at all weird to me, because it brought back a memory of my own first driving test, about 100 years ago (or so it seems).

It was 1960. We were living in Washington, D.C., at the time, and I had just aced my driving course, except for repeated cautions from my instructor to keep both hands on the wheel and my elbow off the armrest. It seems I was a bit too relaxed.

But I was ready. And, because at that time D.C. regulations required — just as Russia does now — that you test on a manual transmission in order to be allowed to drive one — that is what I had decided to do, in case it ever became necessary.

I had enlisted a friend, who owned an older car with a stick-shift, to accompany me to the testing site. I had practiced with her car before, so I felt confident . . . until we arrived in the parking lot, where the examiner — an unsmiling, intimidating, drill-sergeant sort — parked our car at the starting point against a curb and ordered me to get in and drive.

And I started to shake. To begin with, that guy was scary. I like to greet new people with a smile and a bit of friendly chit-chat . . . but he wasn’t having any. And as I looked around, I realized that the parking lot was on a slight upgrade, at the top of which was a pedestrian sidewalk and the main street.

Now, although I had done well during my lessons, I had never been entirely comfortable with getting the feel of the clutch on an incline. And here I was, seated next to Attila the Hun, my left foot quaking like an Aspen leaf in autumn . . . headed uphill.

This was not good.

But jumping out of the car and running away was not an option; and bursting into tears wouldn’t have worked on the Hun. So I took a deep breath, pressed down on the clutch with my trembling left foot and the brake with my right, checked the rear-view and side mirrors, stuck my left arm straight out the open window to signal (I said it was an old car), moved my right foot to the accelerator, and . . .

. . . I popped the friggin’ clutch! The car lurched forward toward the sidewalk, where an unfortunate man had chosen that moment to cross my path. He looked up like a deer caught in headlights and took off like the proverbial bat out of hell (sorry about the mixed metaphors), as I — through some inborn instinct I didn’t know I had — hit the brakes, just in time to prevent a catastrophe.

Attila said nothing. I called out “Sorry” to the pedestrian, who I believe was saying a prayer of thanks to the deity of his choice. And then I turned toward the frozen figure seated next to me and said, quite ingenuously, “I flunked, didn’t I?”

Finally regaining his power of speech, he nodded his head and replied, “Yup.” As he got out of the car and hurried away, I believe I heard him mutter something resembling “Merciful God . . .”

As my friend drove us home, I decided it wasn’t really necessary for me to have that unrestricted license. I found another friend — one whose car boasted an automatic transmission — and passed my next test with flying colors. And — despite the subsequent lifting of that requirement — all of my cars since then have been automatics.

*. *. *

As for Arend Feenstra, I have this to say: Don’t knock that regulation; there’s a very good reason for it. If you don’t believe me, just ask the pedestrian I nearly flattened back in 1960.

Everything’s funny in retrospect.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/8/25

It’s not from Ukrainian drones, Chechen terrorists, or aggressive drivers. It’s not even from the unseasonably hot July weather.

Nope . . . it’s another rash of “suicides” and “heart attacks” befalling some of Putin’s trusted minions, both military and civilian — the most recent being Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit, 53, found dead on Monday, July 7th, of a gunshot wound.

The Russian Investigative Committee said his body had been found in his parked car in the elite Odintsovo neighborhood just west of Moscow proper. A gun belonging to him was found next to his body, and officials have said that, while an investigation will be launched, his death initially appears to have been a suicide.

Just hours before the news of his death broke, the Kremlin had announced that Starovoit had been dismissed from his position by President Vladimir Putin. However, no time of death has been revealed, and it is unclear which came first: the firing from his job, or the firing of the gun.

It has also been hinted by the media that his death may have been related to an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption involving embezzlement of state funds allocated for building fortifications in the Kursk region — an area bordering Ukraine that has been partially occupied by Ukrainian forces — where Starovoit served as Governor before becoming Transportation Minister.

The alleged loss of funds has been given as one of the reasons for deficiencies in Russia’s defense of the region, resulting in Ukraine’s incursion in August of 2024. [Associated Press, July 7, 2025.]

And in Putin’s world, where there is a failure, there is always a scapegoat.

*. *. *

Also on Monday — and shortly after Putin’s announcement of Starovoit’s dismissal — Russian news media reported that Andrei Korneichuk, an official with a state railway agency under Starovoit’s ministry, had collapsed during a business meeting and died of an apparent heart attack. [Id.]

Need more? Fine . . . there’s another one. On the previous Friday, July 4th, engineer Andrei Badalov, 62, a vice president of major petroleum company Transneft, died after a “fall” from his upper-floor apartment on Rublevskoye Shosse — the very street on which I lived in 1993.

His death has also been ruled a suicide, and is just one of dozens since 2022 involving prominent businessmen, industry leaders and government officials that have occurred under questionable circumstances and officially been attributed to suicide or heart attacks. [Tim Zadorozhnyy, Kyiv Independent, July 4, 2025.]

*. *. *

Not all of Putin’s victims find release in death; many more are simply prosecuted and locked away. On the same Monday, July 7th, a former deputy chief of the military’s General Staff, Khalil Arslanov, was convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to 17 years in prison. He was one of several members of the military close to former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu — who himself was removed from his post but survived the purge and was given the important role of Secretary of the Russian Security Council. [Associated Press, op.cit.]

However, Shoigu’s former deputy, Timur Ivanov, has also been convicted on charges of embezzlement and money laundering, and sentenced to 13 years in prison. [Id.]

And — again on that very busy Monday — the former first deputy chief of the National Guard, Viktor Strigunov, was arrested and charged with corruption and abuse of office. [Id.]

*. *. *

That’s a lot of bad news from one city over a single weekend — even from Vladimir Putin’s Moscow. Now, if I believed in coincidence . . .

“Seriously?!!”

But I don’t. Not to this extent. And not considering Putin’s record.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/8/25

There are a lot of people right now — most notably, almost the entire upper tier of Washington officialdom — screaming to make America the White, Christian, nationalist country of their most erotic dreams.

One holds up a bible as though offering to autograph it, while simultaneously ordering the police to attack a peaceful gathering of political dissidents nearby . . .

Another . . . having switched religions as he did political parties . . . now belongs to a church that is a member of CREC — the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches — that promotes an all-Christian, patriarchal society in which women are second-class citizens . . .

And the lot of them — from the White House, to the Capitol, to the Department of Justice, to the Supreme Court — are on a rampage to “cleanse” the country of all those who don’t fit into their mold.

Not only do they subvert the Constitution; they — all of those self-styled good Christians — also ignore the portions of the Bible they find inconvenient, such as:

“And the King [that’s God, not Trump] shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” [Matthew 25:40, King James Version.]

And let us not forget Donald Trump’s Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who might prefer something from the Old Testament:

“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.” [Deuteronomy 15:11.]

. . . and . . .

“A righteous man knows the rights of the poor, a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.” [Proverbs 29:7.]

And then there is this (keeping in mind that it is not a multiple-choice question):

*. *. *

So when does the preaching, the Bible-waving, and the flag-hugging cease to be mere hypocrisy, and become heresy?

I am not qualified to answer that question; but perhaps those professed Christians in our government would like to reflect on it for a while.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/7/25