Here in the United States, we traditionally celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday in May by spending time with family and friends, to pay homage to all of the men and women in the military who have given their lives to protect our nation . . . and to salute those who are currently serving.
This year, I’d like to extend my thoughts beyond our borders. In recognition of the ongoing struggle of the people of Ukraine — both military and civilian — in the defense of their country, I send to you my hopes and prayers for a speedy end to this horrific war, and a just and lasting peace in the future.
The people of Ukraine are, in the truest sense, Russia’s hostages. And so, you remain on my list of those to whom I pay my respects each week.
And not to be forgotten:
The People of Ukraine The Azov 12 David Barnes Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus) Gordon Black Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus) Antonina Favorskaya Konstantin Gabov Robert Gilman Stephen James Hubbard Sergey Karelin Ihar Karney (in Belarus) on 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 Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan) Nika Novak Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus) Igor Sergunin Dmitry Shatresov Robert Shonov Eugene Spector Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus) Siarhei Tsikhanouski (in Belarus) Laurent Vinatier Robert Romanov Woodland Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea) Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)
Finland has been shoring up its defenses for some time now.
And this week, Germany — for the first time since the end of World War II — deployed a permanent military brigade outside its borders, this time to Lithuania. It was not an invasion; it was an action taken in support of the Baltic nation against any possible military incursion by Russia. As German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at the inaugural ceremony in Vilnius, “the security of our Baltic allies is also our security.” [Astha Rajvanshi, NBC News, May 23, 2025.]
He added that, since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, “Russia’s aggressive revisionism” could indicate an intent to redraw the larger map of Europe, and not just Ukraine. [Id.]
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda added that both Russia and Belarus have already begun conducting military exercises on his nation’s border. [Id.]
Which is terrifyingly reminiscent of those weeks prior to February 24, 2022, as the world watched Russian forces building — in what they still insistently refer to as a “special military operation” — on the eastern border of Ukraine. And we all know how that has turned out.
The three Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are geographically the most vulnerable European countries to a future expansionist move by Russia, as they share borders with Russia itself as well as its staunch ally Belarus, and are only connected to a NATO ally — Poland — by way of the narrow Suwalki Gap.
Now, with Donald Trump finally — after three years of devastating death and destruction — realizing that his promise to end the war in Ukraine in a matter of days was never anything more than a self-serving pipe dream, Europe is preparing itself for the worst-case scenario. Will it happen? No one knows for sure. But it would be foolhardy — possibly even suicidal — to sit idly by, just waiting to see what comes next.
So the European allies are doing what they must do: they are arming, and giving fair warning to Vladimir Putin. As Chancellor Merz said, “Anyone who threatens an ally must know that the entire alliance will jointly defend every inch of NATO territory.” [Id.]
*. *. *
Following the May 19th call between Trump and Putin, which accomplished a much-desired prisoner swap but made absolutely no progress toward even a minimum ceasefire negotiation, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) issued a summary report. It stated, among other things, that:
“Russia reportedly continues to expand its military infrastructure along its border with Finland and Estonia, likely in preparation for future aggression against NATO.” And further, that “Russian forces recently advanced in Kursk Oblast and near Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, and Novopavlivka.” [Christina Harward, et al., ISW, May 19, 2025.]
The report concluded that certain actions on the part of Russia were essential to the progress of substantive negotiations:
“Russia must explicitly acknowledge the legitimacy of the Ukrainian president, government, and constitution and Ukraine’s sovereignty in order to engage in meaningful, good-faith negotiations.”
“Russia must agree that ceasefire negotiations must precede peace settlement negotiations.”
“Russia must show its willingness to make concessions of its own in any future bilateral negotiations, especially as the Kremlin appears to be setting conditions to expand its list of demands amid the peace talks.” [Id.]
As logical and reasonable as their recommendations are, we all know there isn’t a snowball’s chance in Hell of Putin ever delivering any of those concessions . . . he has already made that abundantly clear as he has stalled, teased, lied, and blasted his way through more than three years of war.
And why? Because he has no intention of backing off . . . ever. He wants Ukraine; and that is only the first move of his long-term game plan. One of his principal delaying tactics is his ludicrous argument that Volodymyr Zelensky is not the legitimate president of Ukraine, and thus any negotiations with him would allegedly be useless. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told BBC’’s Russia editor Steve Rosenberg on Friday, when asked whetherRussia would sit down and sign a peace agreement with President Zelensky:
“You’re putting the cart before the horse. First we need to have a deal. When it’s agreed, then we will decide. But, as President Putin has said many times, President Zelensky does not have legitimacy . . . Probably the best option would be new elections . . .” [Steve Rosenberg, BBC, May 23, 2025.]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
And, as if that weren’t enough, Russia’s Kremlin-controlled media have chimed in with the following:
From Izvestia: “Russia has won the latest round of global poker.”
From Kommersant: “Donald Trump’s stance couldn’t be more advantageous to Moscow. In effect he backed Russia’s position of ‘Talks first, ceasefire later’ and refused to strengthen sanctions against Russia.”
From a social scientist, as told to Kommersant: “Donald Trump, at least for now, is our ideological partner on certain issues. His views are much closer to Russia’s than to Europe’s.”
Finally — and most significantly, so please read this one carefully — from Komsomolskaya Pravda to Europe’s leaders: “You were warned. Don’t wave threats and ultimatums in the face of the bear. Don’t try to impose conditions in talks that have nothing to do with you. Just sit in the lobby and breathe in the smell of the new world order.” [Id.]
“The new world order” . . . Putin’s ultimate goal. And Donald Trump, in all of his gold-plated ineptness, has played right into the Russian bear’s hands.
This is no ordinary Joe. In fact, he’s not even an ordinary billionaire (if there is such a thing). Consider his first 40 years:
Born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia) in 1984, his family moved to Turin, Italy, when he was just four years old, returning to Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
He and his older brother Nikolai were math prodigies, winning multiple gold medals at the International Math Olympiad. Having brought back from Italy an IBM personal computer, they were able to teach themselves how to program — a rare opportunity in those days.
Together with a classmate at St. Petersburg State University, he created the Russian social network VKontakte (VK) in 2006, which amassed a million users in the first eight months.
When in 2014 the Russian government insisted that he remove opposition politicians’ pages from VK, he refused and left Russia, saying he had “no plans to go back [because] the country is incompatible with internet business at the moment.”
In 2013, the Durov brothers also launched Telegram Messenger, an end-to-end encrypted messaging service that now has a billion users and reported $1.4 billion in revenue ($540 million in profit) in 2024, after showing a multi-million-dollar loss the previous year.
Since leaving Russia, he has obtained citizenship status in France, the United Arab Emirates, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. He travels the world the way most of us schlep around town . . . only first class.
In August 2024, he was detained by French authorities for allegedly allowing illegal activity (including drug trafficking, fraud, and child sex-abuse materials) to be conducted on Telegram. He says he is merely protecting the privacy of his clients. He is currently under investigation, and if convicted, may face up to ten years in prison. Pending a resolution of the charges, he isn’t allowed to travel at all.
On the personal side, he is unmarried, but claims to be the biological father of 100 children. Like Elon Musk, he is a pronatalist who believes the world’s population needs to be increased, preferably by superior human beings such as themselves. But unlike Musk, who prefers to hire women to bear his dozen or more children, Durov shares his largesse via sperm banks. What a stud!
But extreme wealth and a talent for procreation are not the only things he has in common with Musk. His company has been working on “conversational AI,” and has partnered with Musk’s company — xAI — to integrate its chatbot, known as Grok, into Telegram.
I guess what they say is true: that the first billion dollars are the hardest to come by; after that, the next few billion are easy.
I wouldn’t know.
Just sayin’ . . .
Brendochka 5/24/25
NOTE: Biographical details are from an article by Dave Smith, Finance.yahoo.com, May 22, 2025. Opinions and snarky comments are my own.
Ah, life on the seashore . . . the smell of the salt air, the roar of the pounding surf, the cries of the soaring gulls . . .
. . . and the crashing of the 443-foot-long container ship running aground in your front yard.
Well, that doesn’’t happen every day. But that is how Johan Helberg of Byneset, Norway, was awakened on Thursday morning. Actually, he didn’t hear the ship at all; it turns out that he’s a very sound sleeper. But his neighbor, Jostein Jorgensen, was awakened around 5:00 a.m. by the sound of a vessel approaching unusually close to shore. He looked out the window, saw the ship racing toward land, and ran outside shouting to his neighbors . . . perhaps something on the order of, “The containers are coming! The containers are coming!” . . . much like Paul Revere warning of the approach of British troops, only in Norwegian.
Still, Helberg slept. He didn’t hear the banging at his door, either. It was only when his neighbor rang his phone that he finally awakened.
“I went to the window and was quite astonished to see a big ship. . . . Five metres further south and it would have entered the bedroom. I didn’t hear anything,” Helberg told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. [Francesca Gillett, BBC News, May 23, 2025.]
Luckily for everyone, the ship missed the house by a distance of about 26 feet, and no one onboard or ashore was injured. The shipping company sent a tugboat to try to pull it free, but without success. Then a salvage company tried to refloat it at high tide, but the ship remained stubbornly stuck.
The latest word from the owners of the big new eyesore on Trondheim Fjord is that geotechnical investigations will be required before another attempt is made to move the load. In the meantime, the neighborhood has 16 temporary residents, a really big tourist attraction, and a hell of a tale to tell their friends.
And so ends another idyllic day at the shore.
I do love a good news story where no one was killed or maimed . . . don’t you?
The other day, I posted a tribute to the late George Wendt, who was best known for his years of acting in the role of the lovable Norm Peterson on the TV sitcom Cheers. I wrote that, just a few days earlier, I had begun streaming the early episodes of the show, which had been one of my favorites back in the ‘80s, and I was struck by the coincidence in timing. But was it precognition on my part? No . . . of course, it wasn’t.
Or was it? I’m now beginning to wonder, because last night — one of those nights filled with multiple, disconnected, weird dreams that somehow remain disturbingly clear long after you’re awake — one of my dreams involved a psycho serial killer who, whenever he heard the name of the ex-girlfriend who had dumped him, had an uncontrollable compulsion to murder someone. His weapon of choice: a very large, Crocodile Dundee-type of knife. In my dream, I even saw him chase down, slaughter and debone a bicyclist. I then ran and ran through this strange city until I found a couple of police officers, and the knife-wielding lunatic was subsequently apprehended. All’s well that ends well . . . right?
But that’s not the strange part. Around noon today, I received one of those frequent news flashes on my phone. This one read: “Twelve injured in Hamburg knife attack as woman arrested.” [Sofia Ferreira Santos, BBC, May 23, 2025.]
After the Attack in Hamburg, Germany
Now, that’s just too spooky!
There are differences, of course. In my dream, the killer was a man, not a woman. But in today’s inclusive, LGBTQ+ environment, that hardly matters.
The main distinction was that, in my dream, the police officers I approached were speaking Russian, not German. That, of course, was weird enough; but at least I really do speak Russian. It would have been even stranger if I’d been conversing with them in German, since I only know about a dozen words in that language, including ja, nein, bitte, danke, and the ever-popular and oh-so-useful dummkopf and schweinhund. With that limited vocabulary, I would have been hard pressed to describe a homicidal maniac with a huge knife chopping up a guy on a bike, much less give them directions to the scene of the grisly crime. Imagine running up to a couple of cops, obviously distraught, and shouting, “Yes, no, please, thank you, stupid pigdog.”
That would not have ended well.
*. *. *
But, aside from the psychological implications of my nightly nightmares, I’m beginning to have some concerns as to whether I might actually be foreseeing upcoming events. Real life has become scary enough without knowing in advance, for example, what Elon Musk is going to come up with next.
I can’t imagine what a psychoanalyst would have to say about my nocturnal adventures, and I’m not sure I want to know. But tonight, I plan to try thinking happy thoughts before I fall asleep, in the hope that that they’ll find their way into my dreams.
Perhaps I’ll start by conjuring up a whole new administration in Washington . . . much like the one from The West Wing . . . and work my way up to an end to war. By next week, I should have solved all of the world’s problems.
If I were telling an old, corny joke, it might begin: “A priest and a rabbi walked into a bar . . .”
But this picture isn’t a joke, corny or otherwise. It was a moment from real life . . . the sort of moment that makes you feel, just for a while, as though there might be hope for mankind after all.
It is not yet known whether Pope Leo XIV will become the new mediator of the (hopefully) upcoming negotiations between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin. But I can’t think of anyone better qualified — more objective, diplomatic, apolitical, or peace-loving — for the job of bringing an end to the horrific war in Ukraine.
This one picture — seeing the expressions on the faces of those two good men — makes me feel something I haven’t felt in a long while: a sense of optimism.
“Bully pulpit: A public office or position of authority that provides its occupant with an outstanding opportunity to speak out on any issue.”– Oxford Languages
President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt
It is a term originally coined by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, by which he referred to the office of president as an excellent platform from which to promote an agenda . . .
. . . not a stage from which to humiliate other world leaders and dignitaries, thus displaying one’s own ignorance, cruelty, and psychotic need to be king of the hill.
And yes, I am referring to the two recent displays of viciousness aimed at Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, in well-rehearsed, perfectly-orchestrated harangues before the cameras of the world’s premier news media.
Belittling President Zelensky
No doubt the Oval Office has, over the past couple of centuries, been the scene of many a contentious meeting. But they were not played out in front of the mass media for the entire world’s population to witness. And I daresay, no previous president would have stooped so low as to degrade and humiliate a counterpart from another nation, just because he could.
It takes the smallest of men to lord his advantageous position over those less fortunate — in these two cases, one whose country is being demolished in an unjust war, and another who hoped for a reset in relations by clarifying what he says are false accusations against his government.
Berating President Ramaphosa
The details of both ambushes have been amply presented in the media; and frankly, to repeat them here would simply nauseate me even more than I already am. I could not be more horrified or more disgusted by Donald Trump’s treatment of President Ramaphosa if he had forced that gentleman to strip to the waist and flogged him with a cat o’ nine tails.
Once again, I have to ask: How long are we, the American public, going to allow this administration to continue circumventing our laws, ignoring our Constitution, dishonoring our allies, desecrating our most sacred institutions, and destroying our credibility as a nation, before we take legal steps to put a stop to it?
And once again, I use this — my “bully pulpit” — to remind the members of Congress and the Justices of the Supreme Court that the solution to our problems rests in your hands. One man could not have wreaked so much havoc without support . . . your misguided, misplaced, unconscionable support.
Now, it is up to you to reawaken your consciences, do your jobs, and fix it . . . before it’s beyond repair.
Today’s headlines brought a number of juicy choices as possible subjects for my blog. It also brought on a major case of “I-wish-I-were-a-clown-fish-so-I-could-hide-in-a-coral-reef” syndrome.
Just look at these news items:
Two Israeli Embassy staff members are shot and killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.;
*. *. *
Trump’s Oval Office ambush of South African President Ramaphosa (complete with films and fake documents) seems to be part of a trend;
*. *. *
The Defense Department cleared the way for acceptance of a luxury jet from the government of Qatar that will potentially cost billions of dollars to be retrofitted for use as Air Force One;
*. *. *
The White House has revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students;
The Supreme Court deadlocked in a decision, effectively blocking creation of the nation’s first religious charter school;
A private plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, resulting in multiple deaths, injuries, and destruction of property.
*. *. *
There was more, but I found that I couldn’t deal with any of it today; it’s just too much. Maybe tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’ll just do this . . .
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “nihilism” thus:
a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless.
a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths;
a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility;
(capitalized) the program of a 19th century Russian party advocating revolutionary reform and using terrorism and assassination.
Other definitions are, simply, “total rejection of established laws and institutions,” and “anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity.”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Russia was the birthplace of the first nihilist movement. One need only read the works of such Russian authors as Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Chernyshevsky . . . or the 19th-century poet Vladimir Pecherin, who famously wrote:
“How sweet it is to hate one’s fatherland and eagerly anticipate its annihilation, and to see in the destruction of one’s fatherland the dawn of worldwide rebirth.”
Vladimir Sergeevich Pecherin
It is that quotation — paraphrased by the character of Dante in the film version of John Le Carre’s The Russia House — that brings to my mind the similarities of those pre-revolutionary days in Russia and today’s political climate . . . not only in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, but, terrifyingly, also in Donald Trump’s vision for America.
Think about the hatchet job he and his administration have done in just four months on our legislature, judiciary, military, media, beloved cultural institutions, environmental and health agencies, international relations, and the most basic tenets of the U.S. Constitution itself.
And then tell me whether you hear echoes, not only of the lead-up to the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, but to the growth of Hitler’s Nazi party in 1930s Germany as well.
Hitler’s Rise to Power
Perhaps I’ve read one (or several) too many volumes of Russian history and literature. But I’ve also read far too many recent news stories not to see a parallel.
It hardly seems possible for one person to win the award twice in such a short period of time, but fair is fair. With the rampant epidemic of stupidity in Washington, the field should be wide open; but Kristi Noem — current head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — still leads the pack . . . for today, at least, or until the next indecipherable mouthful of mush issues forth from the Oval Office.
Already famous for carrying $3,000 in cash in her purse around Washington, D.C., and not holding onto said purse while dining in a Capitol Hill restaurant, she has now further displayed her lack of mental acuity by stating — nay, by insisting — that the definition of that most basic of Constitutional rights, habeas corpus, is the polar opposite of its actual meaning.
During a Senate hearing on May 20th, Noem was asked by Senator Maggie Hassan: “What is habeas corpus?” To which the woman in charge of our nation’s security replied:
“Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.” [Rex Huppke, USA Today, May 20, 2025.]
No, you didn’t misread that — those were her actual words.
Fortunately, Senator Hassan knew better, and offered the following correction:
“Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason. Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.” [Id.]
But that wasn’t a sufficient clue for Noem to keep her mouth shut. Instead, she continued:
“President Lincoln used it. I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.” [Id.]
Kristi Noem
Well, she did get one thing almost right: Lincoln did suspend (not “use”) habeas corpus during the Civil War. And therein lies the difference between Lincoln’s suspension of the provision and Trump’s proposed “use” of it. Article I of the Constitution makes it clear that only Congress has the right to suspend habeas corpus . . . and only “when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion [i.e., war] the public Safety may require it.” [Id.]
May I further point out to Ms. Noem that we, the United States, are not at war. We have not been invaded, nor have we declared war upon another country. There has been no rebellion (not since the attempted one on January 6, 2021, when Trump’s MAGA friends stormed the Capitol . . . but that’s a whole other story).
Noem needs to wake up and smell the lies. Trump would subvert the Constitution for his own purposes . . . in this case, to justify his illegal deportation of immigrants without due process. And she, along with her fellow lemmings in the administration, would blindly follow him anywhere in order to keep their jobs.
So yes, she gets the Golden Dunce Cap Award for this week. Our government, and our tax dollars, at work.
The Blog About Everything … and Sometimes Nothing 