Through nearly four years of unspeakable devastation, constant attacks, and burials of loved ones, the people of Ukraine have managed to retain their humanity, their reverence for the country’s history and culture . . . and, apparently, their sense of humor.
This composite photograph appeared in a Facebook post yesterday. Looking at the top picture, I thought I recognized the fine hand of one of the region’s most revered painters, the late Ukrainian-Russian Ilya Repin (1844-1930). A search revealed that it is indeed one of his works, titled “Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks” — such a fitting tribute to the people of today’s Zaporizhzhia, one of the regions so horribly decimated by Russia’s relentless assaults.
(And though I’m not absolutely certain of the reason for the difference in spelling, the likelihood is that the old name was the Russian-language version and the current spelling is Ukrainian. Please feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken.)
“Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks” – Painting by artist Ilya Repin (top), and Reenactment by unknown wise guys (bottom)
Just look at that reenactment by Ukrainian soldiers in a rare moment of rest. It’s perfect, from the bald guy leaning back from the table at bottom right, to the soldier with the bandaged head at center rear, to the arm sticking up from the crowd next to him.
The modern interpretation is most likely AI-created; it’s hard to tell these days. But however it was done, it’s pure genius. And it speaks to the unflagging spirit of the people of a nation under siege . . . a people who love their country and its ancient history, and who refuse to give in to the Russian tyrant.
They were tried by a military court in Rostov, Russia, so they are being treated as prisoners of war. But the eight men — a mix of Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian citizens — were civilians involved in the transport of a shipment of cargo by truck in October of 2022 when it exploded as the vehicle crossed the Russian-built Crimean Bridge that connects the Russian mainland with Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula across the Kerch Strait.
Crimean Bridge – October 8, 2022
The accused — Artyom and Georgy Azatyan, Oleg Antipov, Aleksandr Bylin, Vladimir Zloba, Dmitry Tyazhelykh, Roman Solomko, and Artur Terchanyan — were charged with carrying out a terrorist attack and illegal arms trafficking. Solomko and Terchanya were also accused of smuggling explosives. Five others — three Ukrainian and two Georgian nationals, were charged in absentia. [Associated Press, November 27, 2025.]
The eight defendants were non-combatants. The delivery was being made by Oleg Antipov’s logistics company, and consisted of rolls of plastic film; the explosives are said to have been hidden inside the rolls. Russian authorities said the shipment had traveled from Odesa through Bulgaria, Armenia and Georgia using falsified paperwork. [Moscow Times, November 27, 2025.]
Note: Geographically, that makes no sense whatsoever; it would be akin to traveling from Germany to Switzerland by way of Spain, Hungary and Romania.
Antipov himself went to the FSB — successor agency to the KGB — as soon as he learned of the explosion and was unable to reach the driver of his truck. He was interviewed and released, but was arrested some days later. [Associated Press, op.cit.]
Lt. Gen. Vasyl Maliuk, head of Ukraine’s SBU (Security Services), acknowledged in a 2023 interview that he and two others on his staff had prepared the attack, and stated they had used the civilians without their knowledge of the contents of the cargo. But the eight defendants were put on trial behind closed doors in February of this year, and have now been sentenced — each and every one of them — to life in prison.
The Eight Defendants (Behind the Glass Partition)
A video published by independent media outlet Mediazona depicts Oleg Antipov addressing the courtroom after the verdict:
“We are innocent. We are innocent. We all passed — eight of us — we all passed the polygraphs. We all proved our innocence. We cooperated fully. We went to law enforcement ourselves and gave our testimony. Not a single person has testified against us. All the witnesses say we are innocent. All the evidence says we are innocent. All 116 volumes [of case files] say we are innocent. Show the people the truth.”[Id.]
But in Vladimir Putin’s world, someone must always be punished.
The human rights group Memorial has designated all eight men as political prisoners, saying that their cooperation with investigators indicates that they had no links to Ukrainian intelligence. So it is with the deepest sorrow that we add them to our hostage list this week, designated as the “Crimea 8.”
*. *. *
And on that note, here they all are once again: the political prisoners of the Putin regime and those of his allied states — all those known to me, and the thousands I don’t know about:
Prisoners of War:
The 19,500 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:
Mikita Losik Yulia Navalnaya Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents
Ales Bialiatski Andrei Chapiuk Marya Kalesnikava Uladzimir Labkovich Andrzej Poczobut Marfa Rabkova Valiantsin Stafanovic Yuras Zyankovich
In Georgia:
Mzia Amaglobeli
In China:
Chenyue Mao (American)
In Russia:
The “Crimea 8”: — Oleg Antipov — Artyom Azatyan — Georgy Azatyan — Aleksandr Bylin — Roman Solomko — Artur Terchanyan — Dmitry Tyazhelykh — Vladimir Zloba
David Barnes (American) Gordon Black (American) 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 Novak Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea) Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler) Sofiane Sehili (French) Igor Sergunin Dmitry Shatresov Robert Shonov Grigory Skvortsov Eugene Spector (American) Laurent Vinatier Robert Romanov Woodland (American)
*. *. *
In this especially difficult season of “peace on Earth, good will toward men,” it is particularly important that you stay strong, and know that you are not forgotten.
It’s entirely possible that, in the midst of all of the chaos of the past ten months, I’ve missed (or misinterpreted) a news item or two. But something just seems off in this recent series of White House actions and proclamations. Bear with me, please, and see if you agree.
First: Throughout his 2024 campaign and the first ten months of his second term, Donald Trump has consistently come down hard on immigration policy. We all know this from his increasingly vicious rants about the alleged hordes of “murderers and rapists” pouring across our borders like so many lemmings, and from the photo ops of Kristi Noem and her ICE-Cadets.
Machine-Gun Barbie: Keeping America Safe
Second: Trump has made no secret of his virulent racism and xenophobia, going so far as to invent a genocide against White South Africans in order to fast-track their applications for asylum, while barring all but a handful of others from predominantly non-White-populated countries.
Third: Since last week’s tragic shooting of two members of the West Virginia National Guard in Washington, D.C., by a citizen of Afghanistan legally in the U.S., Trump has declared that he will “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries,” [Rebecca Falconer, Axios, November 28, 2025], thereby punishing tens of thousands of deserving, at-risk people for the heinous act of one man.
NOTE: I have no idea how you “permanently pause” something, but in Trump’s world, it seems that even time bends to his will.
Fourth: In his war against drugs — while certainly a worthy effort on its face — Trump has had no fewer than 83 people blown to pieces in 21 strikes against boats suspected of carrying illegal drugs from Venezuela to the United States through international waters. In a presentation to the United Nations on September 23rd of this year, he offered this warning:
“To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence.” [Reuters, September 23, 2025.]
No search and seizure; no due process of law. Just . . . KABOOM!
Now, hold onto your hats, because this is where it goes completely off the rails.
Fifth: Yesterday, November 28th, Trump announced that he will pardon the ex-president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who just last year was convicted of drug trafficking charges in a U.S. court of law. Hernandez was found guilty in March 2024 of “conspiring to import cocaine into the US, and of possessing machine guns. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.” [Nadine Yousif, BBC, November 28, 2025.]
He had been extradited to the U.S. in 2022 to stand trial for “running a violent drug trafficking conspiracy and helping to traffic hundreds of tons of cocaine to the US.” [Id.]
“Hundreds of tons of cocaine.” Not just a little boatful.
Juan Orlando Hernandez
The Hernandez case was a perfect example of a successful, legally-executed battle in a war against drugs . . . except that it took place during the . . . dare I say the name? . . . Biden administration. Which was all Trump needed to convince him that Hernandez had been “treated very harshly and unfairly.” [Id.]
Do you see what I mean about inconsistency? What could possibly be his rationale?
So I read on, and suddenly it became clear. Because in the same post it was reported:
“ . . . Trump also said he supported conservative candidate Tito Asfura in the upcoming general election in the Central American country [Honduras] on Sunday. . . . Trump in his post on Friday called Asfura a candidate that is ‘standing up for democracy’ and fighting against Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro. The Trump administration has accused Maduro . . . of being the leader of a drugs [sic] cartel” allegedly taking over Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. [Id.] [Bold emphasis is mine.]
And we all know what Trump has been up to in Venezuela, don’t we?
What I’d like to know is how — even in Trump’s twisted thought processes — he can, in one breath, rage against foreign interference in U.S. elections, and then turn around and attempt to do exactly that to another country.
And how is it acceptable, while proclaiming a war against drugs coming to the United States from one country, to pardon a convicted drug lord from another country, simply because that drug lord might be useful to you in pursuing your vendetta against the first, oil-rich, country?
“Wait . . . WHAT??!!!”
Oh, did I not mention the oil? Because that’s what it’s really about, you know: this obsession with Venezuela. It’s their vast oil resources. The drugs are simply the convenient justification for a threatened invasion, which in turn is meant to pressure Venezuela into what would no doubt be a very lucrative (for Trump) arrangement.
In Trump’s universe, it’s not hypocrisy; it’s “The Art of the Deal.”
Hernandez and Trump: Old Friends
And behind every false word and every cruel act, that’s all that matters to him.
John Kander and Fred Ebb were two of the most talented and prolific songwriters of the 20th century, giving us such hit shows as Kiss of the Spider Woman; New York, New York; Cabaret;and my personal favorite, Chicago.
Kander, now aged 98, was the musical composer, and Ebb (1928-2004) the lyricist. And it was a segment of Fred Ebb’s lyrics that came to my mind today when I received an email solicitation from Washington’s Kennedy Center.
Fred Ebb
From the time the Kennedy Center opened in 1971 until I left Washington in 2020, I was one of its millions of devoted patrons. From musical comedy to serious drama to concerts (both classical and pop), I spent many a happy hour in the elegant confines of the nation’s premier cultural center on the Potomac.
The variety of entertainment was limitless — something for every taste and every interest, educational programs for children, and an aura of . . . well . . . of class.
And then, earlier this year, Donald Trump invaded the Kennedy Center. He declared himself the arbiter of taste and suitability; cancelled programs that hinted of diversity and inclusiveness; invited his super-rich friends in for an endless string of expensive parties . . . and all the years of beauty and culture came crashing down.
Previously-scheduled performers with social consciences began backing out, regular patrons cancelled their subscriptions, and those performers who did show up found themselves playing to half-empty theaters.
*. *. *
We all know that once you’re on an email mailing list, you’re there forever unless you unsubscribe. And since I’ve never gotten around to doing that with the Kennedy Center, I received this from them yesterday:
My immediate thought was that this was a joke — some sort of fake, AI-created ad. But when I clicked on the schedule of events and realized it was genuine, I had to acknowledge just how far the mighty have fallen. Advertising a “Black Friday” sale at the once-renowned Kennedy Center as though it were a Walmart superstore . . . whose idea was this? How desperate are they?
And what ever happened to class?
That’s when I recalled Kander and Ebb, and Chicago, and Fred Ebb’s lyrics to a song titled simply, “Class.” It gets a little raunchy toward the middle, so I will share with you just the first two stanzas:
“Whatever happened to fair dealing? And pure ethics And nice manners? Why is it everyone now is a pain in the ass? Whatever happened to class?
Whatever happened to, ‘Please, may I?’ And ‘Yes, thank you?’ And ‘How charming?’ Now, every son of a bitch is a snake in the grass. Whatever happened to class?”
Mama Morton and Velma: “Nobody’s got no class”
I know the answer to that question:
Class, as we once knew it, retreated to the private homes of those who possessed it. And its lingering aura was removed from the grand edifice on the Rock Creek Parkway and delivered to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where it metamorphosed into something garish, slathered in gold leaf, and totally unrecognizable.
Because today, in the upper reaches of the Washington bureaucracy, “nobody’s got no class.”
Someone’s Idea of Class: The White House East Wing, Reimagined
And, aside from the members of the very exclusive Washington Billionaires’ Club, we are all the poorer for it.
It’s that time again: the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday. The official start of Christmas season. The day we realize we’ve let it slide once more until we have only a month left to get everything done: the lists, the decorations, the shopping, the wrapping, figuring out how we’re going to pay for all of it.
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge — a man of few words who was fondly nicknamed “Silent Cal” — actually broke silence and spoke once about Christmas. In his signature brief style, he said:
“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933)
That’s lovely. But as the pace of life has become ever more frenetic with the passing of the years, I rather prefer this one:
I have no idea who originated it, but I believe we can all relate to it. And in that spirit, I wish everyone a very safe, reasonably sane, and highly successful four-week shop-a-thon.
On January 20th of this year, after three years of witnessing Ukraine’s decimation by Vladimir Putin’s war machine, Donald Trump marched into the White House promising to end the war within 24 hours. He was the only one who believed it.
In the ensuing ten months, he has been proven wrong time and time again, because his promise was based on a delusional, narcissistic belief that he could manipulate, cajole, and bully Putin the way he has always done in his business and personal dealings with less savvy adversaries.
Now it appears that — having failed as the self-proclaimed “Peace President” — he has decided instead to bully the victim, Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he is blaming for having let the whole thing drag on interminably as though he had asked to be invaded. And in so doing, Trump has succeeded in placing, not only Ukraine, but the entirety of the European continent in Putin’s future line of sight.
The months of meetings among the leaders of multiple countries, jetting around the globe at a moment’s notice; of the world getting its hopes up again and again; of delays and broken promises; of revised, hastily patched-together proposals . . . all of it has been much ado about nothing.
Because the simple truth is that Vladimir Putin is shrewder, more experienced, more patient, and more diabolical than all of the leaders of all of Ukraine’s allies combined. And because he has never, from day one, had any intention of ending the war on any terms but his own . . . which he has finally made crystal clear this week.
When news broke of the existence of Trump’s secretly-created 28-point “peace proposal,” all hell broke loose in Ukraine and throughout Europe at the paper’s audacious granting of virtually everything Putin has been demanding from the beginning of the war. Calling it “Putin’s wish list,” Ukraine’s EU allies quickly got together in Geneva to make revisions, and included the Ukrainian president in their discussions — something that Donald Trump had not had the decency to do.
European “Coalition of the Willing”
But one person was remarkably silent: Vladimir Putin. For several days, we heard from the Kremlin only that they were aware of the proposal . . . until yesterday, when Putin confirmed that a U.S. delegation was expected to arrive in Moscow early next week for discussions of the new, 19-point working paper.
And then he launched into a regurgitation of everything he’s been demanding for nearly four years. While on a visit to Kyrgyzstan, he said at a press conference that it would be “pointless”to sign any documents with Ukraine’s current leadership, as he still considers President Zelensky’s presidency to be illegitimate. The fact that Zelensky is acting in accordance with his country’s constitutional mandate is of no relevance to Putin.
He then reiterated the very demands that have been at the core of the difficulties from the beginning. He insisted that Ukraine’s troops withdraw from all territory claimed by Russia, and ruled out any possibility of a ceasefire prior to such withdrawal, saying:
“If Ukraine’s troops leave the territory occupied, then military action will stop. If they won’t leave, then we will achieve that by armed force.” [Patrick Reevell and David Brennan, ABC News, November 27, 2025.]
He further demanded international recognition of Russia’s occupation of Crimea, the Donbas region, and parts of eastern and southern Ukraine (presumably Kherson and Zaporizhzhia), saying that his country was “ready in principle [to] fight to the last Ukrainian.” [Id.]
Then — confirming the prevailing worldwide opinion that Trump and his “negotiators” are willing to give Putin the entire candy store in order to put this war to rest — he added:
“Overall, we see that the American side is taking into account our position, which was discussed before Anchorage and after Alaska. In some areas, we definitely need to sit down and seriously discuss specific issues.” [Id.]
When asked about the leaked recording of a reported phone call between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, Putin adopted his friend Donald Trump’s favorite tactic, offering this gem:
“This may be some kind of fake news. Maybe they really did eavesdrop. Actually, this is a criminal offense; eavesdropping is illegal in our country. It’s not about us. It’s about the battle of opinions between the collective West and the U.S. over what needs to be done to end the hostilities.” [Id.]
I highlighted that last quote because I actually burst out laughing when I read it. Between the “fake news” comment and the attempt to have us believe that eavesdropping is illegal in Russia, I simply couldn’t restrain myself.
But this is no laughing matter. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who had “welcomed” the initial 28-point draft heavily favoring his country’s position, said on Tuesday about the revised proposal:
“Some forces want to jeopardize efforts by Donald Trump and to change the peace plan. If the ‘spirit’ of Anchorage will be wiped out from this plan, then it’s going to be a whole other story.” [Dan De Luce, Courtney Kube and Abigail Williams, NBC News, November 25, 2025.]
*. *. *
Meanwhile, as Ukraine crumbles, the world holds its collective breath, and Trump enjoys the Thanksgiving weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate, real estate developer Steve Witkoff and his team of amateur diplomats prepare to jet off to Moscow for the sixth time to . . . well, we don’t really know what they hope to accomplish, do we?
In light of Putin’s continuing recalcitrance, it seems like a total waste of time, effort, and jet fuel. Because nothing is going to happen until Ukraine has no alternative but to acknowledge that it has been well and truly screwed.
And Vladimir Putin — and his eager American trade partner — will have won the day.
I’ve taken the day off from the news in order to better enjoy (and digest) the traditional food orgy that we Americans look forward to during the other 364 days of the year. But a daily quotation wouldn’t be daily if I missed a day, would it? So, very briefly, here is my Thanksgiving offering to you, good readers.
Who is, or ever has been, more quotable than Shakespeare? In my estimation, no one. So he’s back for an encore performance today.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Even on a day off, world events are never far from my mind; and this year, those naturally include — in addition to the plethora of international conflicts that never seem to disappear completely — the political turmoil in my own country. So, on that subject, I would like to offer a little . . . well, I was going to say “advice”; but I’m not naive enough to think that the people for whom it’s intended would ever give it a second thought. Let’s just say, then, that this is an almost prescient word of caution from the Bard himself to the 21st-century Washington Billionaires’ Club . . . and most particularly to their exalted leader:
“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. . . .
“O God! that one might read the book of fate, and see the revolution of the times make mountains level, and the continent, weary of solid firmness, melt itself into the sea. . . .
“‘The time shall come’ — thus did he follow it — ‘The time will come that foul sin, gathering head, shall break into corruption,’ so went on, foretelling this same time’s condition and the division of our amity.”
For some reason, today feels like a Shakespeare kind of day.
William Shakespeare
Only a few years ago, we pulled ourselves through the Covid pandemic, thanks largely to the quick response of medical researchers in developing effective preventive vaccines . . . regardless of what Booby — sorry, Bobby — Kennedy Jr. might say.
But the world now is in the throes of yet another, very different, pandemic — one for which there can be no vaccine or magic cure. This one is a rapidly-spreading plague of depression, a sense of helplessness and dread in the face of unimaginable, widespread hate, anger and corruption.
There is so much sh*t going on in the world — stuff that we ordinary individuals are physically incapable of fighting and morally unable to adapt to — that we tend to shut it out, like the sound of that dripping faucet that we really need to have fixed if only we could afford the exorbitant plumber’s rates.
That kind of chronic depression affects different people in different ways, of course. Shakespeare’s Macbeth summed it up eloquently, viewing the effort we mortals invest in our lives as futile and therefore meaningless. I’ve quoted it — in whole or in part — before; but for the thousands of you who missed it, here it is again:
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”
– William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5
The Real Macbeth, King of Scotland (C. 1005-1057)
And on that note, I wish one and all a very happy holiday season. Macbeth may have given up hope, but that doesn’t mean we have to.
Unless something earth-shaking hits the headlines — and I fervently hope it doesn’t, because it’s nearly always bad news when it does — I’ll be taking the next couple of days off from writing for the Thanksgiving holiday. But I’ll try to keep up with my daily quotes . . . just to let you know I’m still alive and kicking (more or less).
“Happy Turkey Day, Everyone!”
I expect to be back by Friday, full of turkey and all the trimmings. Until then, I wish my American friends and family a very happy and delicious Thanksgiving. And to all of those friends in other parts of the world . . . well, the same good wishes to you, with or without the turkey dinner.
Today’s quote is from a statement made just yesterday by a gentleman who clearly knows what he’s talking about.
As U.S., Ukrainian and European leaders and diplomats scurry around the globe from meeting to meeting, attempting to make sense of Donald Trump’s 28-point peace proposal to be presented to Kyiv and Moscow in hopes of ending the war in Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte offered comments to the media following one such meeting in Geneva.
Mark Rutte
Speaking of the meeting itself, and the prospects for the success of the proposed peace plan, Rutte said, “Well, obviously some of the elements have to be really thought through,” and that “clearly as a base it served its purpose yesterday to get the two parties to really dialogue.”
And then — proving that he is indeed the right person in the right job at the right time — he added this:
*. *. *
“I know one thing about the Russians in general and Putin specifically. Whenever you make an agreement, you have to make sure it is in his interest to keep it.
So that’s why it is so important that whenever a peace deal is reached on Ukraine, that he will never try again. And he will never try again when he knows that the consequences for him will be devastating if he tries to invade Ukraine again after a long term cease-fire or preferably a peace deal.”
– Mark Rutte, as reported by RFE/RL, November 24, 2025
*. *. *
Unlike the United States, European nations have suffered multiple wars on their own territories. They understand — because they live daily with — the danger of yet another invasion by some fascist, communist, or other tyrannical regime. And they understand the man — Vladimir Putin — as Donald Trump never has and likely never will.
It is Europe that is most vulnerable to Putin’s dreams of reinstating Imperial Russia in his lifetime. And it is Europe’s leaders to whom we should be listening most closely.
The Blog About Everything … and Sometimes Nothing 