I’m reasonably certain a psychiatrist, or perhaps a neurologist specializing in disorders of the brain, would tell me it’s quite a common — even normal — phenomenon . . . for someone of my age, at any rate. Which is the next-to-last thing I want to hear (the last, of course, being a diagnosis of an actual brain disorder).

But neither do I want to hear about the age thing. Because throughout the years, as I’ve been learning to live with the physical ravages of time, I’ve told myself I’ll be fine as long as I don’t go completely bonkers . . . only now, I’m not so sure how that’s going either.

No, I haven’t forgotten what year it is, or where I live, or who is sitting in the White House (though, God knows, I’d like to forget that one). And I remember to take my prescription medications every day, and what each one is for; I haven’t yet worn my underwear outside my clothes; and I know that the mayonnaise goes into the refrigerator and the dirty dishes belong in the dishwasher.

So it’s not senility that has me grumpy . . . it’s just words.

I have a fairly impressive vocabulary . . . or I used to. And I know that everyone — even some of my younger friends — will have an occasional “brain fart” and go blank on a word or a name from time to time. But lately I find myself turning more and more frequently to my iPhone’s dictionary for the right . . . you know . . . that thing . . . what’s it called? . . . oh, yeah . . . the right word. Especially adjectives.

Memory is a strange thing. I can name, in nearly alphabetical order, all 50 states of the United States, and most of their capitals. I can also recall the 15 former Soviet Republics (now independent nations), grouped by location/ethnicity: 4 Slavic, 3 Caucasian, 3 Baltic, and 5 Central Asian.

But the other day, I had to ask the thesaurus to find a synonym for “despot.” You can probably guess who I was writing about at the time.

I remember — from 10th-grade Biology class — the names of all of the major bones of the human body.

But the name of one of my favorite actresses — the one who played the Dowager Empress in Downton Abbey — totally vanished from memory. Yes, I’m talking about the late, unforgettable Maggie Smith.

And I can still recite portions of Shakespeare’s soliloquies learned decades ago — Lady Macbeth’s mad scene, Marc Antony’s eulogy at Caesar’s funeral, and other equally useful bits and pieces — as well as Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

But I’m damned if I can remember anything from the last book I read . . . including the title!

If I could carry a tune (sadly, I’m one of the 20% who can’t), I could sing the lyrics to nearly every song from nearly every musical produced between 1950 and 1990 (with the exception of Cabaret and a couple of others I didn’t care for).

But recently I had to look up the word for . . .

Oh, crap! Now I’ve forgotten what word I was looking for. See what I mean? I’ll never be chosen as a contestant on Jeopardy now!

*. *. *

I think you get my point. It’s not dementia, or senility, thank goodness. It’s “normal” — for someone of my age, that is. But it’s totally frustrating, infuriating, annoying, irritating, exasperating, and . . .

Oops . . . give me a second, will you, while I look up a few more adjectives?

And such is life in the slow lane.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/14/25

When Mikhail Baryshnikov leapt across the stage of the Kennedy Center’s Opera House, there was a moment — just a few seconds, really, though it seemed an eternity — when he hung suspended in mid-air, his forward trajectory halted, gravity inexplicably defied.

Even above the strains of Tchaikovsky’s majestic music, the collective gasp of the audience was clearly audible. Then, as time stopped, no one breathed. And finally, the dancer’s momentum propelled him forward once more, his feet silently touched the stage floor, and we — the fortunate witnesses to this miracle — exhaled as one.

That night in the early 1980s — seeing Baryshnikov dance Tchaikovsky’s immortal Swan Lake — was without question the most memorable of my many years of memorable and varied theater experiences. And it would not have been possible had he not been permitted, some eight or ten years earlier in 1974, to perform with the Bolshoi Ballet in Toronto, Canada . . . where he defected from the Soviet Union, seeking political asylum and eventually gaining citizenship in the United States.

It was the era of the Cold War, when U.S.-Soviet relations were at a treacherously low level. Yet cultural exchanges were still taking place, with Russia’s famous ballet companies, concert orchestras, and folk dancers appearing throughout the world . . . always accompanied, of course, by an easily-recognizable contingent of KGB minders.

Of course, we sent our American stars over there as well. Jazz and rock musicians were particular favorites, and Russian audiences were thrilled to see and hear the likes of Elton John, Billy Joel, Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, and others.

The exchanges were meant to bridge cultural divides and foster goodwill. How well they worked is debatable; but one thing is certain: everyone who was privileged to attend the performances, on both sides of the Iron Curtain, had a hell of a good time; and — for a few hours at least — Americans and Russians forgot that they were supposed to hate each other.

*. *. *

But that was then. The Cold War — in theory, at least — ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 (although we’re still spying the daylights out of each other, but that’s a whole different story). Until recently, thanks to the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, business transactions, sporting competitions, cultural and educational exchanges, and personal travel between Russia and the countries of the West have thrived.

And then, on February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and in place of a cold war, there was a real war taking place in Europe of a magnitude not seen since World War II. Russia has once again become a pariah in the free world, and sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe have affected every facet of Russian society, including individuals generally considered non-political.

So when Vincenzo de Luca, President of the Campania region of Italy, recently invited Russian conductor Valery Gergiev — director of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters and a close ally of Vladimir Putin — to perform at a concert festival later this month, he ran into some serious opposition.

De Luca’s position is that “Culture … must not be influenced by politics and political logic. We do not ask these men to answer for the choices made by politicians.” He had previously called Europe’s ban on pro-Putin artists “a moment of stupidity — a moment of madness” at the start of the war, and now says he is proud to welcome Gergiev to the festival. [Sarah Rainsford, BBC, July 12, 2025.]

On the opposite side of the debate is Pina Picierno, a vice-president of the European Parliament, who has said that Gergiev’s return would be “absolutely unacceptable,” and called the conductor a “cultural mouthpiece for Putin and his crimes.” [Id.]

Needless to say, that is also the position being taken by people like Ukrainian human rights activist Oleksandra Matviichuk, who said that inviting Gergiev was “hypocrisy,” not neutrality. And the exiled members of the late Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation want the concert cancelled, and have called upon Italy’s interior ministry to ban Gergiev from entering the country. [Id.]

*. *. *

So what’s the solution?

I sorely miss the old days, when it was “sexy” and exciting to attend a performance of the Bolshoi, the Kirov, or the Moiseyev Folk Dancers at the Kennedy Center. I even recall seeing the incredible Leningrad Dixieland Jazz Band at the Smithsonian Institution in the ‘70s, with the then Soviet Ambassador in the audience.

But those were different times, when we still innocently believed — or at least hoped — that peaceful coexistence was possible. Today, in the world of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump . . . well, not so much.

So, as much as I’d like to take Mr. de Luca’s side, realistically I don’t see how I can. Because sanctions can’t work if we make exceptions.

How I miss the good old days!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/13/25

Five days ago, it was announced that Russia’s leading independent election-monitoring group, Golos (“Voice”), had been forced to shut down its operations due to continued threats from the Putin administration.

Golos’ co-chair, Grigory Melkonyants, had been sentenced in May to five years in prison on charges of carrying on activities for an officially-designated “undesirable” organization, the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) . . . deemed “undesirable” because its investigations revealed election violations and irregularities the Kremlin obviously did not want exposed.

The people then remaining at Golos issued a statement upon closing their doors:

“The verdict leaves us no choice. This is the end of a story which, according to investigators and the court, lasted 25 years. The arrest and imprisonment of our friend and colleague had one goal: to make Golos fall silent.” [RFE/RL, July 8, 2025.]

And so it has. But Grigory Melkonyants’ name will not fall silent; it will be called out each week along with the others on our list of political hostages being held in Putin’s prisons . . . while their countries, their families and their colleagues continue to fight for their release.

So, once again, here they are:

Prisoners of War:

The People of Ukraine
The Azov 12

Political Prisoners:

The Azerbaijan 7:
— Farid Mehralizada
— Ulvi Hasanli
— Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai)
— Mahammad Kekalov
— Hafiz Babali
— Nargiz Absalamova
— Elnara Gasimova

In Russia, except as otherwise indicated:

David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Mikita Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Grigory Melkonyants
Nika Novak
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

. . . and any others I may have overlooked.

One more time.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendohchka
7/13/25

This world isn’t big enough for two Caesars . . . yet, as though by way of some diabolical cosmic joke, that is what we’ve got.

In fact, we are currently blessed with a plethora of autocrats: Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, Aleksandr Lukashenko, and a whole bunch of Middle Eastern potentates, to name a few. But the two who stand out from the crowd — due to their good fortune in having been born in the two most powerful nations on Earth — are, of course, the Joy Boys of modern political vaudeville . . . let’s hear it now, for . . . Donnie and Vlad!

Unfortunately, it’s not a joke. Because each of these two firmly believes he has a divine right to rule the world. And each is determined to do just that . . . despite the fact that both have already outlasted their respective life expectancies by a couple of years.

*. *. *

Vladimir Putin has been in office for a quarter of a century, and has rigged Russia’s constitution so that he could well fulfill his ambition of being “Tsar for Life.” In 25 years, he has taken a country that was on a path of political and economic reform, and turned it back into a Stalinist nightmare of repression, fear, and uncertainty.

Openly declaring his belief that the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, he has embarked on a new crusade of expansionism by any means: if enticement doesn’t work, he resorts to threats; and if threats fail to do the trick, there is always invasion.

Just ask anyone in Ukraine.

And other neighboring countries — former Soviet Bloc nations and the Baltics — are already building their defenses in anticipation of the worst-case scenario. Under Putin, the Russian Empire — like the Roman Empire of old — is on the march.

His own words, spoken at an economic forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, on June 20th of this year, sum it up perfectly:

“There’s an old rule that wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, that’s ours.”

Enough said.

*. *. *

Donald Trump hasn’t invaded any other countries . . . yet. But he has tried enticing — and even tossed out a couple of undisguised threats at — both Greenland and Canada. And he did drop a few bombs on Iran at Israel’s behest, and has toyed with the idea of turning Gaza into the next Riviera.

His principal focus, however — during the less than six months since re-taking the White House — has been on waging all-out war against his own country. Usurping the powers of Congress and the Supreme Court, and ignoring the existence of the U.S. Constitution, he has:

> decimated the most essential government agencies, thus creating havoc, interrupting vital services, and putting thousands of people out of work;

> stacked his Cabinet and agency hierarchies with people whose only qualification is absolute fealty to him;

> brutally and illegally rounded up immigrants, the vast majority of whom are hard-working family people innocent of any crime, and — without due process of law — herded them into concentration camps pending deportation to third-world countries;

> completely reversed decades of progress toward the guarantee of equal rights for all, regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation; and punished institutions of learning and culture that have refused to comply with his unconstitutional executive orders;

> attempted (sometimes successfully) to stifle the media that dare to expose his illegal actions; and

> himself committed crimes of which he has been found guilty in the nation’s courts.

Having established his domestic autocracy, he now feels free to unleash his bullying tactics on the rest of the world: outrageous tariffs, sanctions and threats against historically friendly nations, and denigration of the institutions responsible for having thus far prevented a third world war: the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, etc.

He — like his idol, Vladimir Putin — believes that it is his God-given right to rule the world. But their backgrounds could not be more different. If I may indulge in a little amateur armchair analysis:

Putin is driven by an unquenchable lust for power stemming from a deep-seated inferiority complex. He grew up in near-poverty. He was teased, being short and slightly built; but he was also smart. So he developed a toughness in order to survive, and worked his way up — often by ruthless means — all the way to the top.

Trump, on the other hand, came from wealth, privilege, and a sense of entitlement. Having been taught that the world was his for the taking, he suffers from a narcissistic belief that he is special and is thus entitled to grab whatever he desires . . . from money, to women, to political office.

In short: Putin will not tolerate dissent; Trump cannot.

But despite their different histories, they have separately arrived at the same place in life: at the head of their respective countries, with only one goal remaining to be reached: King of the World.

Two Caesars, one world.

And when Titans clash . . .

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/12/25

That’s not quite the way Frank Sinatra sang it, but old Blue Eyes never imagined Donald Trump would one day be trying to turn the Big Apple into his own federal playground.

Which is pretty much what he has threatened to do if the newly-nominated mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, is elected mayor of New York City.

Mamdani was born in Uganda to Indian parents, and emigrated to the United States at age seven with his family; he holds dual Ugandan and American citizenship. He presently serves as a New York State Assemblyman from the 36th (Queens) district. He is a member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America.

And Donald Trump has pledged to use federal power to seize control of New York City if Mamdani — whom Trump has labeled as a communist — is elected mayor.

Trump told the media during a Cabinet meeting in Washington:

“If a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same. But we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to. New York City will run properly. I’m going to bring New York back. I love New York. We’re going to straighten out New York. It’s going to — maybe we’re going to have to straighten it out from Washington.” [Steven Nelson, New York Post, July 8, 2025.]

Right . . . he loves New York so much, he thought nothing of ditching it for Florida when it became financially advantageous to leave . . . something to do with a tax liability, if I recall correctly.

Typically, Trump offered no legal basis for his purported authority to seize control of New York City. But he did add:

“We’re going to do something for New York. I can’t tell you what yet, but we’re going to make New York great again. Also, we’re going to make it great again with the country.” [Id.]

Whatever that means.

*. *. *

But since bigger is always better in Trump’s world, a takeover of New York City apparently isn’t enough for him. When he had finished with that subject, he turned his attention to the nation’s capital:

“We could run DC. I mean, we’re, we’re looking at DC. We don’t want crime in DC. We want the city to run well,” he said. [Id.]

Well, I can help him with that one. If he wants to eliminate crime in Washington . . . if he really wants the city to run well . . . he could just leave it, the way he left New York.

I understand El Salvador is lovely in July.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/12/25

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