Greetings on my first day of posting from Virginia. For my readers from outside the U.S., that is about halfway up the Atlantic coast between Florida and Maine, but only a few degrees cooler than where I just came from in Georgia. It’s a hot summer everywhere.
But not nearly as hot as those war zones around the globe: most notably, of course, Israel vs. Gaza and Russia vs. Ukraine. Yet, at this week’s NATO meeting in Türkiye, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky found an opportunity to dig deep into his past life as a humorist, taking a jab at Vladimir Putin’s stubborn insistence that any meeting between them should take place in Moscow.
A rare moment of levity
When Donald Trump — trying once again to placate Putin and nudge Zelensky toward making further concessions — asked Zelensky if he might consider going to Moscow, the heroic president of Ukraine wryly replied:
“It’s difficult. There are a lot of Ukrainian drones there.”
And indeed there are. Here is Ukraine’s latest strike on a Russian oil refinery, this one reaching all the way to Omsk, in Western Siberia:
Oil Refinery in Omsk
Thanks, President Zelensky, for the smile . . . and for the reminder of who is really turning the tide of this war.
Well, I made it to Virginia, arrived around 4:00 p.m. yesterday, and managed to find the energy for a walk around the neighborhood with my daughter and her pup, Daisy.
And then I was pooped, and headed to bed early.
Me, last night . . . and this morning
I’ll be taking the rest of the day off from any serious writing in order to get some unpacking done. But I’ll be back tomorrow with my regular snarky comments on the daily news. I’m sure the world can do without me for another few hours.
I’m preparing this in advance, to be posted with the click of a button as I try to catch a few hours of sleep before hitting the road.
My next post will probably be a progress report from somewhere on Interstate 95, perhaps in South Carolina or North Carolina, but definitely when we reach Virginia.
Bye-bye, Georgia. It’s been nice getting to know you, but it’s time to be moving on.
As I prepare to embark on my move northward from Georgia to Virginia tomorrow, I’ve been thinking a great deal about the many major life changes I’ve experienced, and the fact that I never expected to undertake another one at this stage.
But I’ve always faced changes with optimism, looking forward to whatever new adventures await me. I get bored with sameness.
As one of our more eloquent U.S. Presidents once said:
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
– John F. Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963)
And since the length of our futures is uncertain, I don’t want to miss a minute of mine. So off I go.
As a friend said to me the other day, the world is going to hell in a hand basket . . . and all I can think of are the last-minute details of my move before Departure Day on Tuesday.
But a couple of headlines caught my eye recently. The first article said that both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky had held phone conversations with Donald Trump on July 4th, and that — surprise, surprise! — the stalemate continues. Both sides are sticking to their guns (pun intended) on the major issue of Russia’s demand that Ukraine cede a substantial chunk of its sovereign territory to Russia. Nothing new there.
Sadly, the end of the war is still not in sight . . . unless Putin’s oil crisis finally breaks him. And if things are as bad as recent reports indicate, that is not an impossibility.
The Adversaries
The second story, which I had somehow missed earlier, was somewhat less disturbing but — if you can imagine it — even more complicated than the Russia-Ukraine negotiations. The headline read:
“Who’s Shipping Bananas To Russia, And Who’s Shipping Cocaine?” [RFE/RL, by Systema, July 3, 2026.]
Bananas and cocaine? You have to admit, that sounds enticing. And it is — but not only because someone has been smuggling massive quantities of drugs (in the most recent shipment, about 1.5 metric tons of cocaine, with a street value of about $257 million), supposedly under the noses of the authorities. What was most fascinating was the tale of the interwoven relationships among the principals of the shipping company, the vendors of the fruit, the recipients of the shipment, etc.
The Offending Ship
I couldn’t possibly begin to unravel it here, but it involves, at the very least, a former Russian shipping industry operator from St. Petersburg now based in Cyprus, a port agent in St. Petersburg, shareholders who went to school together, associates of Vladimir Putin (aha!), and ties of several of them to the same residential real estate development near St. Petersburg. And that’s just for starters. They all seem to be involved in a myriad of other businesses, with their paths intersecting numerous times. This little misadventure has more nefarious characters than a Dostoevsky novel.
And this is not some random event; the smuggling has apparently been going on for some time. Yet Putin — unlike Donald Trump — has not seen fit to blow the ships out of the water to prevent the influx of illegal drugs.
It can’t be that he has developed a sudden aversion to killing people. Perhaps the difference is that Trump hasn’t found a way to profit personally from the U.S. drug trade, whereas Putin . . .
Well, that’s all conjecture. So maybe it’s best to simply drop it.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get back to the last of my packing. See you on the far side.
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
To some, that might sound intellectually snobbish. But I believe that Mrs. Roosevelt — rather than insulting people who may not have had the benefit of advanced education — was in fact criticizing those who engage in gossip and slander.
And I would like to take the liberty of adding a fourth observation:
“Demented minds spew hatred and vitriol on social media at three o’clock in the morning.”
Yesterday, July 4th, was Independence Day in the United States — the 250th anniversary of the founding of a nation that would one day become the world’s model of what a democracy can be, and a welcoming refuge for victims of persecution from all corners of the world.
But this year’s celebrations were muted by the unmistakable signs of a growing threat of tyranny in our own house, even as we claim to oppose authoritarian regimes in other lands. And I ask myself how we can criticize those others when our own people are losing their jobs for opposing the official government line, or being locked up for appearing to be of the “wrong” ethnicity.
Still, we have not yet sunk to the level of totalitarianism; and as long as our courts continue to uphold the laws of the nation, and the majority of people continue to fight the evil forces that threaten to overtake us, there is hope that we will emerge from these times of trouble better, stronger, and wiser than before.
But it remains obvious that my country’s problems should in no way distract us from the suffering of the hostages of other blatantly corrupt systems. So, in solidarity with those prisoners of the Putin regime, I share the enduring spirit of this holiday — a day dedicated to freedom and independence — with the following political prisoners, and with all of the others whose names I do not know:
*. *. *
Prisoners of War:
The 20,000+ Kidnapped Ukrainian Children The People of Ukraine
Immigrant Detainees in Russia:
Migrants from the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
Endangered Exiles:
Pavel “Pasha” Talankin Mikita Losik Yulia Navalnaya Oleg Orlov Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents
Political Prisoners:
In Afghanistan:
Mahmoud Habibi (Afghan-American) Paul Overby (American, missing since 2018)
Andrei Chapiuk Uladzimir Labkovich Andrzej Poczobut Marfa Rabkova Valiantsin Stafanovic Yuras Zyankovich
In Georgia:
Mzia Amaglobeli
In Russia:
The “Crimea 8”: – Oleg Antipov – Artyom Azatyan – Georgy Azatyan – Aleksandr Bylin – Roman Solomko – Artur Terchanyan – Dmitry Tyazhelykh – Vladimir Zloba
James Scott Rhys Anderson (British) Aleksandr Andreyev David Barnes (American) Yevgenia Berkovich Gordon Black (American) Hayden Davies (British) Yury Dmitriyev Anastasia Dyudyaeva 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 Mikhail Loshchinin Grigory Melkonyants Nika NovakSvetlana Petriichuk Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea) Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler) Lev Schlossberg Sofiane Sehili (French) Igor Sergunin Dmitry Shatresov Robert Shonov Grigory Skvortsov Eugene Spector (American) Joseph Tater (American, disappeared)Karina Tsurkan Laurent Vinatier Robert Romanov Woodland (American)
You have not been, and will not be, forgotten. Stay strong.
Both Vladimir Putin — who is on the verge of losing his prolonged war against Ukraine — and Donald Trump — who lost his war in Iran before it even began — would have benefited if they had heeded the words of an expert on the subject:
“There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.”
– Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”
Sun Tzu (544 B.C. – 496 B.C.)
It is no less true today than it was more than two millennia ago, as proven by the countless wars and revolutions that have been fought around the world since Sun Tzu was a general in the Chinese army.
If only the people in charge would start paying attention to history . . .
Ordinarily, I would be out there in the 100-degree heat with the rest of the neighborhood, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the fireworks, scarfing down a hot dog and some ice cream, and happily celebrating my country’s landmark 250th birthday.
But this year the celebrations will go on without me, because I just can’t find a single spark of enthusiasm to cheer on a country whose government has sunk to such depths of corruption and depravity — and whose people have become so overwhelmed, so desensitized, and so convinced that there is no way to fight the unspeakable evil that surrounds them, that they accept it as inevitable, or hope that somehow, miraculously, someone else will solve the problems for them.
And I am constantly reminded of the Russian people’s acceptance when Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik Party promised them an end to Tsarist tyranny and a future of “peace, land, and bread,” or the desperate German masses who swallowed Adolph Hitler’s guarantee of a return to greatness following their humiliating defeat in World War I and the after-effects of the disastrous Treaty of Versailles.
Lenin and Hitler: Two of a Kind
I love my country, as I always have. And I shall continue to speak out in support of all that is good and decent and honest in her, and against the forces that would destroy her. But this year I will say a quiet “happy birthday” on my own, and leave the fireworks and picnics to others.
With any luck, maybe next year I’ll find something to celebrate.
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