The truth is, Mme. Antoinette never did say “Let them eat cake,” or anything like it. But she lost her head anyway, as did her husband, King Louis XVI — both accused of treason, and being unpopular (to say the least) with the general populace of France who were mired in poverty and misery while the royal family lived in ostentatious luxury, completely oblivious to the reality of life outside the palace.
Marie Antoinette (1755 – 1793)
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Well, try this one on for size.
Today’s quote comes from none other than our very own Louis XVI, Donald Trump, who — when questioned by reporters as to his planned attendance at the third game of the NBA Finals where ticket prices begin at $8,000 — had this to say about the inability of the average citizen to attend sporting and other events due to the outrageous cost of everything:
“They can watch it on television. It’s sorta semi-free to watch it on television. That’s the way life goes.”
– Reported by Associated Press, June 5, 2026.
“That’s the way life goes.”
There you are: the perfect solution . . . if they can even afford cable or satellite TV.
But that’s the way life goes.
Perhaps someone should remind Trump what happened to Louis and Marie. This isn’t 18th-Century France; but some things never seem to change.
In a week with no new hostage information, I’m never sure whether to think of it as good news — because there have been no recent arrests reported — or bad news, because none of the current prisoners have been released.
I’d like to think that the good news at least partially offsets the bad. But for those political prisoners still incarcerated in Russian and other prison camps, it’s just another week in hell.
Siberian Prison Camp
*. *. *
So, for those thousands of men and women, named and unnamed, here again is the full list of the hostages known to me, together with a blanket prayer for the safety and quick release of every last one of them:
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 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)
On this date in 1944 — 82 years ago — Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, marking the beginning of the liberation of France, and from there, the rest of Europe. As the Western front progressed eastward, and the Eastern front led by Russian forces moved westward, Adolf Hitler began to realize that his days were numbered.
It was the beginning of the end of a brutal, six-year war, costing millions of lives and unimaginable devastation. But it was a war that the Allies fought in defense of freedom and democracy — not by choice, for oil, or for personal glorification. And when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the nation on that day, he did so — not in anger or malice — but in the form of a non-denominational prayer for the safety of those embroiled in that historic battle and the souls of those who would not return.
First it was Donald Trump who lost interest in attempting to negotiate a ceasefire and/or peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Then — although they continue to provide material and moral support — the European Coalition of the Willing has faded from the headlines.
And now, the EU has declined to name a special envoy to Russia, at least partially due to Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that Gerhard Schroeder, the former German Chancellor and a close confidant of Putin himself, should be appointed as the envoy. At a meeting of EU foreign miisters in Cyprus on May 27–28, one senior official described it as a “dead topic.” [Rikard Jozwiak, RFE/RL, June 2, 2026.]
So Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky stepped forward on June 3rd, in an open letter to Putin urging that they meet at a neutral location to agree to end the war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky – June 3, 2026
The letter pointed out that Washington — i.e., Donald Trump — is “fully focused” on his war with Iran, and that “it would be wrong to simply wait” for a change in that situation. While stressing that the United States and European nations should still be involved in the peace process, Zelensky wrote:
“Ukraine is ready for a full cease-fire for the duration of the negotiations. This is standard practice, and current developments around Iran only reinforce that point.” [Ray Furlong, RFE/RL, June 4, 2026.]
He further proposed a mutual exchange of all prisoners of war.
Noting that Ukraine has been successfully striking Russia’s energy industry, he continued:
“You regularly postpone, every few months, your own deadlines for capturing our regions — especially the Donetsk region. And you will not capture it this year either. But we in Ukraine do not want a permanent war. We know very well that life without war is infinitely better. And we want to achieve that.” [Id.]
*. *. *
Well, that put the ball squarely in Putin’s court, just as he was attending the 2026 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum — Russia’s answer to the Western economic meetings at Davos. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media that Zelensky could “come at any time to Moscow” . . . an invitation that somehow reminds one of this:
When Putin was informed about the letter, he called it “rude,” reiterated his position that peace talks should come before any ceasefire, and said:
“I don’t see any point for now. Was it a way to create the conditions for a face-to-face meeting or a way not to set up a face-to-face meeting? I think it was the second.” [Dan Sales, BBC, June 5, 2026.]
To which Zelensky responded that Putin “was choosing war again. He just doesn’t want to end the war. I think that many in the world were disappointed by this answer.” [Id.]
*. *. *
And what did Donald Trump have to say about all of this while speaking to the press in the Oval Office?
“Im glad that they’re maybe talking about meeting. I think we had a lot to do with it. I think it would be great if they met. They should — get it done.” [Ray Furlong, RFE/RL, June 4, 2026.]
For whatever that’s worth.
*. *. *
So where does that leave Ukraine? Sadly, in the fifth year of a war they did not ask for and do not deserve, with no end in sight.
There was a time, not that long ago, when the Red Army was a force to be reckoned with — when it opened up a second front in order to join the allies in defeating Hitler and bringing the Second World War to an end.
And we’ve all seen pictures and films of those parades in Red Square, where the troops and their armaments were put on full display, both to instill patriotic fervor in the Russian people and to strike fear in the peoples of the free world.
May Day Parade – Red Square, Moscow – 1967
But what has happened to the Russian military might of yesteryear? What have four years of war against the much smaller, less militarily-equipped nation of Ukraine done to Russia’s pride and joy?
To begin with, nearly 500,000 Russian troops have been killed since the invasion of February 24, 2022. Vladimir Putin tried ordering a wide-scale mobilization in September of that year, but it resulted in the flight from the country of hundreds of thousands of draft-age citizens. Since then — fearful of repeating his first mistake — Putin has instead relied on other means of attracting “volunteers.” In addition to convincing a number of other countries to send troops to join the battle, he has promised high pay and bonuses for Russian soldiers and the families of those who are killed in the war, and has turned to recruitment of prison inmates, drunks, and homeless individuals: people desperate to escape their present situations and willing to risk their lives for the promise of financial gain.
But even that hasn’t been enough. So his military leaders have been sending even the most seriously wounded men back into battle, retrieving them from their homes or the hospitals where they were supposed to be recuperating, or simply ordering them to continue fighting without ever receiving medical care. Some examples:
Pavel Podgrushny, 38, had been sentenced to eight years in prison for causing a fatal car crash. To avoid the hell of prison, he enlisted in the army and was sent to a different kind of hell: the front lines in Ukraine, where he was wounded and hospitalized in April 2024. According to a relative, he suffered head and chest injuries, lost his left eye, and also lost his hearing when his eardrums ruptured. He was declared temporarily (!) unfit for service and sent home to recover, but never received the documents confirming his status.
In September 2025, Podgrushny was summoned to a recruitment center, was later declared a deserter, and for the next six months tried to obtain a formal discharge. Then one day he was detained and his phone confiscated. His family has not heard from him since, and it is not known where he is, or even if he is still alive. [RFE/RL’s Russian Service, June 4, 2026.]
One More Casualty
Another case is that of Mikhail, who was seriously wounded in 2024, leaving him with badly limited vision in his one sighted eye. According to a rights activist named Igor, a medical commission “declared [Mikhail] fit for duty in five minutes, detained him, and the next day, they sent him — blind — to the front.” [Id.]
Igor says that these are not isolated cases. “They force them to sign a new contract. They’re usually locked up in the guardhouse for a few days. They’re simply left in the barracks, in a cell, without food or water. And they’re forced to sign a paper stating that the last military medical commission [finding] was ‘fake.’ After that, they organize a new commission for them. It will then declare the discharged soldier fit for service. There’s no way out. The wounded and their families are just stunned as their own army drags them out of their homes, blind and on crutches. But the situation is getting even worse. To avoid searching for discharged soldiers at addresses where they may not be registered, commanders sometimes save time by hauling them straight from the hospital.” [Id.]
*. *. *
That is what happened to Andrei Perevalov, 26. According to his friend Sergei:
“He has fractures, multiple shrapnel [wounds] all over his body.” Andrei’s right arm now hangs, useless, by his side. But the military “took him straight to the front, to the combat zone [near Pokrovsk]. He’s recording voice messages for me — you can hear explosions in the background. He’s no fighter in this condition, and they’re giving the order to ‘move forward.’ What’s going on? Are they just throwing bodies all over Ukraine? Squeezing us until the last drop of blood?” [Id.]
Sergei said that some of the wounded don’t even make it to the hospital before being ordered to join a new assault. Wounded soldiers contact their units “from a trench or a destroyed building. They tell you their name, age, where and how they were wounded. Commanders simply refuse to hospitalize them, even if the wounds are open.” [Id.]
And so on, ad infinitum.
*. *. *
Like me, your first reaction to this story was probably horror and revulsion at the level of inhumanity to which human beings can sink.
But once I stopped gagging, I thought of the desperation of the officers who feel they have no option but to send even the most horrifically wounded men back into battle, simply to fill an empty space left by one who didn’t survive.
And I thought of Putin and his generals — Shoigu, Gerasimov, and all the others — commanding a military force so diminished by four years of fighting a war they should never have started in the first place that it is now largely populated by invalids.
What are Putin’s choices now? Another mass mobilization, risking yet another exodus like the last one? Or — in the best-case scenario — finally conceding that he must negotiate a ceasefire and peace treaty on terms that may not be exactly what he wants?
Like all dictators, Putin finally embarked on one adventure too many and is paying the price. His popularity has waned; his cities are being attacked by Ukrainian missiles and drones; and he spends more and more time cowering in bunkers.
And he deserves every bit of it — for all of the lives, both Ukrainian and Russian, that have been destroyed by his “special military operation.” Tragically, his downfall will come too late to save those other lives; but it may bring some satisfaction to the survivors.
The following quote from the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny refers, of course, to his own country, and specifically to Vladimir Putin. But I have chosen it today because it is so clearly applicable to every authoritarian leader, anywhere in the world. Take from it what you will:
“A serious political leader cannot simply decide to turn his back on a huge number of his fellow citizens because he personally dislikes their views. That is why we must create a situation where everybody is able to participate on an equal footing in fair and free elections, competing with each other. . . . Without question, those who organize pogroms should be called to account, but people need to be given the opportunity to demonstrate legally and express their opinions, however much you may dislike them.”
On the night of June 2nd, more than 41,000 people, including 4,500 children, sheltered overnight in the Kyiv underground metro. Russia had warned of a major attack, even suggesting to foreign embassies that they should evacuate their people.
While the Kremlin’s reputation for keeping their promises is less than stellar, they are far more reliable when it comes to following through on their threats. And this time was no exception. In Kyiv, at least six people were killed on Tuesday night; in Dnipro, at least 16 lost their lives in two residential buildings that suffered direct hits; and at least ten were injured in Kharkiv, where energy facilities and civilian infrastructure were the targets.
Kyiv, Ukraine – June 2, 2026
By morning, there was rubble and shattered glass everywhere as workers began clearing away the night’s devastation. One woman in Kyiv, identified only as Anna, lives near the epicenter of one of the explosions; her car was totally destroyed. When interviewed, she had this to say:
“They’ll fix the building, but not our souls. The whole of the building, the whole of Ukraine is in grief. What have we done to deserve this?”
– [Reported by Vitaly Shevchenko, BBC, June 2, 2026.]
What indeed?
The strong spirit of the Ukrainian people has brought them through more than four years of this unspeakable carnage; and it will sustain them as long as it takes to put an end to it. When it is finally over, their cities will be rebuilt. But who can repair their souls?
On May 9th, I wrote about the U.S. government’s sudden willingness to grant public access to the long-hidden files on UFOs — which are now called UAPs, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. At that time, the Defense Department posted on X:
“The American people can now access the federal government’s declassified UAP files instantly. The latest UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire United States government are all in one place — no clearance rqeuired.”[Kaanita Iyer, Michael Williams and Marshall Cohen, CNN, May 8, 2026.]
Note that they specified “declassified” files. We have no way of knowing what may still be classified.
Then they went on to say that the DoD would be “releasing new materials on a rolling basis as they are discovered and declassified, with tranches posted every few weeks.” [Id.]
But they added disclaimers that the “descriptive and estimative language . . . [reflected the] subjective interpretation” of the person who wrote the report, and therefore “should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication” of actual events. [Id.]
In other words, we should be aware that what they were feeding us was most likely just a pile of
Don’t look so surprised.
So what ever happened to those forthcoming tranches to be posted every few weeks? Well, last week the new website — Aliens.gov — debuted. I didn’t see any fanfare, or even an announcement of its launch. But luckily, CNN did. And here is what they have to say about it.
It started with: a big, neon green header:
“THEY WALK AMONG US”
Then a text scroll began:
“For 60 years, the U.S. government has kept a closely guarded secret. Aliens have been walking among us, living in our neighborhoods, and interacting with us in our daily lives.” [Harmeet Kaur, CNN, June 3, 2026.]
Wait . . . it sounds like they’re talking about Russian spies. But no, because the CNN report continues:
“Along with fake ‘declassified’ labels and a clunky reference to ‘The X-Files,’ the website also features an interactive map tracking ‘alien encounters,’ or purported arrests of immigrants and asks users to report ‘suspicious aliens.’” [Id.]
And there was this AI-generated animation, showing an immigrant earthling — not an outer-space “alien” — being beamed up over the southern U.S. border wall:
The Newest in ICE Technology?
So the DoD seems to be conflating extraterrestrial “aliens” with the more down-to-earth definition, which is — according to Black’s Law Dictionary — “a person who resides within the borders of a country but is not a citizen or subject of that country.”[Id.]
Use of the term “alien” to describe migrants goes back to Colonial times, whereas the science-fiction version dates to around the 1930s. As explained by historian Mai Ngai, author of “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America”:
“When people spoke of beings from outer space, they likened them to foreigners. It’s not like people saw an immigrant and said they look like they’re from outer space. They saw an image of a being from outer space and said they look like a foreigner.” [Id.]
But, as Ngai goes on to say:
“What the White House did was an ultimate association of immigrants with not being human. To say that they came from a spaceship means they’re not human beings.” [Id.]
Actual Humans?
Attempts have been made over the years to differentiate between a migrant and an extraterrestrial, including President Joe Biden’s directive that the country’s immigration enforcement agencies use the terms “non-citizen” and “migrant” in place of “alien” and “illegal aliens.”
But the Trump White House says otherwise. According to spokeswoman Abigail Jackson:
“Identifying an individual as an ‘illegal alien,’ is not demeaning, it’s factual. The Trump Administration will continue deporting illegal aliens without apology.” [Id.]
*. *. *
So it would seem as though the whole “let’s release the UFO files” thing was nothing but another attempt to attack our immigrant population — and an incredibly infantile one at that.
It’s not a military invasion this time, and it doesn’t directly involve Donald Trump himself. But it’s just as insidious, and almost as destructive.
While Trump gleefully dismantles America’s ocean monitoring systems and dismantles environmental protections across the country, his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner are happily occupied with their latest project: building multi-billion-dollar private resorts on what were protected wetlands in Albania.
The Epitome of Obliviousness
The project would include the construction of hotel complexes in the Vjosa-Narta coastal region in the community of Zvernec, as well as on the uninhabited island of Sazan — currently home to flamingos, Mediterranean monk seals, and nesting sites of sea turtles, all of whom would be losing their homes to a playground for the rich and infamous. Excavators have already begun clearing pine forests and dunes, and erecting barbed-wire fences to keep locals and tourists away from their beaches.
But there is trouble in the Albanian paradise. When it was recently revealed that Prime Minister Edi Rama had been secretly facilitating the project by pushing through legislation in 2024 changing the protected status of the regions, the people revolted, taking to the streets of Tirana en masse and demanding Rama’s resignation.
Chanting “Cancel the project,” and carrying banners reading “Albania is not for sale” and “Ivanka, go home,” the protesters demanded that the project be stopped because of concerns over environmental damage and government corruption. [Agence France Presser, June 2, 2026.]
And now Albania’s Special Anti-corruption Prosecution office, known as SPAK, has opened a formal investigation into how that change to Vjosa-Narta’s protected status was quietly orchestrated. [Occupy Democrats, June 2. 2026.]
There seems to be no limit to the lengths the Trump family will go to in order to further line their already overflowing pockets, without giving a moment’s consideration to the impact on other people’s lives or the world’s natural environment.
Flamingos in an Albanian Lagoon
Here’s hoping the good people of Albania are able to win this one for the flamingos, the monk seals and the sea turtles, and send Jared and Ivanka packing. The world doesn’t need more Trump Towers.
I have carefully avoided the subject thus far because it’s almost too easy, and it’s already been beaten to death. But it is one of the biggest elephants in the White House these days, so let’s tackle it once and for all.
We’ve all seen hundreds of still photos and videos of Donald Trump appearing to fall asleep — in Oval Office meetings, Cabinet meetings, summit meetings, and even while standing straight up, which completely defies the laws of physics and which, I have to admit, I find oddly fascinating.
The White House, of course, continues to deny the existence of a problem, claiming that the photographers have caught Trump thinking with his eyes shut, or alternatively, “slow blinking.” And that last excuse has itself become the object of considerable scorn.
Well, I’m here — not to poke fun, or to refute the claims of Trump’s superhuman mental and physical acuity — but to assure you that there is indeed such a thing as the “slow blink.” And it did not originate with him.
How do I know this? I know, because I mastered it many years ago.
Eyelids at “Semi-Blink”
Slow blinking goes beyond just nodding off while watching the 87th rerun of a M*A*S*H episode, or trying once again to plow your way through The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Anyone can do that.
And during my many decades of working in offices, I have (too frequently) been found seated at my desk, facing my computer screen, both hands poised on the keyboard . . . sound asleep. That was usually in mid-afternoon, after a fairly substantial lunch. Food seems to have that effect on me.
But — and this is where it gets impressive — I am also able to lay claim to having slow blinked while listening to Henry Kissinger speak at a luncheon in Washington, D.C., back in the ‘80s.
“Say what?!!”
No kidding.
Now, Kissinger was a brilliant individual and a remarkable statesman, whose many accomplishments included reopening (along with Richard Nixon) diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, advancing detente with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, negotiating the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, and instituting the “shuttle diplomacy” that helped end the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East. So he had a lot to say, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to hear him speak in person.
Henry Kissinger
But for all of his brilliance, I’m sorry to report that Dr. Kissinger had a speaking voice that can best be compared to Russian baritone Dmitry Hvorostovsky singing Vecherny Zvon on a 78 r.p.m. vinyl recording being played at 33-1/3 r.p.m. (Or — for those who have no earthly idea who Dmitry Hvorostovsky was or what Vecherny Zvon sounds like — just think of an up-close recording of a hive of really angry bees droning on . . . and on . . . and on . . . in a heavy German accent.)
So, on top of a fairly heavy meal (there’s that food thing again), what should have been an exciting experience turned out to be a major snooze. I’m happy to report that at least I didn’t snore, and I didn’t face-plant into the chocolate mousse. But there were definitely a few slow blinks, followed by much gulping of water to get me through the rest of his keynote speech without humiliating myself.
Please don’t ask me what he spoke about; I have no clue.
*. *. *
Then there was my first attendance at what became my all-time favorite musical: the incomparable Les Miz.
I know, I know: It’s impossible to imagine dozing off while the barricades are being stormed to the accompaniment of “Do You Hear the People Sing.” But let me explain.
It was 1988. I had returned just two days earlier from my first trip to the then Soviet Union, and I was still somewhat jet-lagged, and physically and emotionally exhausted from the two-week schlep from Moscow to Tbilisi (Georgia) to Sochi to Leningrad. When I finally set foot back in Washington, my sister surprised me with tickets to the hottest show in town: Les Miz at the Kennedy Center. How could I refuse?
At the Barricades
There was no Kissinger-style droning to excuse my behavior this time. The entire performance — the music, the acting, the story of the French uprising reminding me of the plight of the Russian people I had just left behind — was riveting. And loud. But sometimes our bodies just do what they want to do, no matter how hard we fight against them. And toward the end of the first act, my eyelids began to bli-i-i-ink, bli-i-i-ink, bli-i-i-ink . . .
Luckily, that was just about the time the orchestra hit its finest crescendo, bringing me a good two inches up out of my seat. Our box seats were just across the hallway from a ladies room, and I made a beeline to it, splashed some cold water on my face, and managed to revive sufficiently to make it through the second act.
(P.S.: I have since seen Les Miz a total of six times in various venues . . . but never again on the heels of an overseas trip.)
*. *. *
So yes, even during an event that should preclude one from losing the plot and declining into slow-blink mode, it can happen. I’m living proof of that. And on those occasions, I was a good deal younger, and in far better health, than Donald Trump is now. So maybe he could be excused for being tired and nodding off now and then . . .
. . . if only he weren’t the guy in charge of the nuclear codes.
The Blog About Everything … and Sometimes Nothing 