He’s a new friend. We’ve never met, and doubtless never will, as I live halfway around the world in America. But we read each other’s blogs, and sometimes comment on them, always with the greatest mutual respect. And I know that if we ever did meet, we would become the best of friends.
Much like myself, he writes on a variety of topics. And what he has written about his country has stirred my interest in a land to which I frankly had not given a lot of thought in the past — probably because it doesn’t make the headlines with tales of war and other horrors that fill the daily news reports from so many parts of the world. So I have ordered a book on the history of New Zealand, which Amazon has promised to deliver by tomorrow, and I can’t wait to dive into it.
Meet the Kiwi: National Bird of New Zealand
In the meantime, though — and by one of the rare truecoincidences in life — I happened upon an online article a few days ago about a mountain in New Zealand — Mount Taranaki — that has been granted personhood.
And I thought: “What on earth . . . ?!!!”
I know that in some languages — French and Russian, to name just two — many inanimate objects are referred to as possessing either masculine or feminine gender. But my native language is English, and to me, an inanimate object is neuter . . . plain and simple. Dogs and cats have genders; birds and fish have genders; dishes and silverware do not.
Nope . . . never gonna happen!
But on the other hand, who are we to say that a mountain is inanimate? It gives life and shelter to countless flora and fauna. Its winter snows provide springtime moisture to the lands below. The Maori — the indigenous people of New Zealand — consider Taranaki Maunga (the mountain’s Maori name) to be their ancestor. It is a pristine, snow-capped dormant volcano, and a popular spot for hiking and snow sports. And it is not the first natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, that honor also having been awarded to a river and a stretch of sacred land. [Associated Press, January 30, 2025.]
Taranaki Maunga
And the recognition of Taranaki Maunga has both spiritual and legal significance for the Maori people, as it is a part of the vast lands that have, since the arrival of the first Europeans on New Zealand, been the subject of conflict between the original Polynesian settlers — now known as the Maori — and the more recent occupants. [Id.]
So, congratulations to Taranaki Maunga, and to all of your people. May you continue to live in peace and harmony with nature, and with one another.
Just sayin’ . . .
Brendochka 2/3/25
P.S. And to my Kiwi friend, I hope I have gotten all my facts straight, and that you will let me know if I haven’t.
It started with the wholesale firing of dozens of good, honest employees who were devoted to doing the jobs with which they had been entrusted, and were not willing to become the personal lackeys of a single, power-crazed individual.
In With the New, Out With the Old
The second step was to replace those suddenly unemployed individuals with loyal sycophants who would do anything to earn a place near the seat of power . . . including the seizure of the confidential data of millions of federal employees, and locking out those workers who had spent their careers guarding that very information.
In ages past, the next move would likely have been to seize the railways and telegraph offices. But those halcyon days are long gone, and it’s much simpler now to have one’s sidekick use his technological resources to seize all the electronic data.
Therefore, the third target became the one thing that makes the world go ‘round: the money. And that meant a takeover of the U.S. Treasury.
U.S. Treasury Building (Located one block from the White House)
“Impossible!” I hear you cry. “Unspeakable!” “Un-American!” “Treasonous!”
Well, you’re certainly right about the last three. But there was no reason for anyone at the Treasury Department to be concerned about a routine visit from a presidential transition team about a week before the January inauguration to discuss the seamless handover of authority. After all, they weren’t armed . . . not with AK-47s or Molotov cocktails, at any rate.
But this meeting was not routine. Unexpectedly — and quite unusually — the team battered the Treasury officials with specific questions concerning its Bureau of the Fiscal Service, “an arcane branch that distributes nearly 90 percent of all federal payments, including Social Security benefits, tax refunds and payments to federal workers and contractors. That adds up to a billion annual transactions totaling more than $5 trillion.” [Katelyn Polantz, Phil Mattingly and Tierney Sneed, CNN, February 1, 2025.]
On Friday, January 31st, acting U.S. Secretary of the Treasury David Lebryk suddenly left his post “after Trump-affiliated officials expressed interest in stopping certain payments made by the federal government, according to three people familiar with the situation.” [Id.]
David Lebryk
And now, Elon Musk and his DOGE associates have total access to the U.S. government’s payments systems.
When an individual familiar with the department — who wished to remain anonymous — was asked about the matter, the reply was:
“They [the Trump/Musk team] seem to want Treasury to be the chokepoint on payments, and that’s unprecedented.” That individual further emphasized that it is not the Bureau’s role to decide which payments to make — it is “just to make the f-ing payments.” [Id.]
This action followed closely on the heels of Trump’s earlier, unsuccessful attempt to freeze trillions of dollars in federal spending. And while the nation’s leadership does not normally concern itself with the day-to-day logistics of issuing payments, Trump’s team has, according to career officials, shown an “odd interest” in the inner workings of the process . . . raising suspicions about the administration’s possible intentions of disrupting the entire operation of the nation’s economy. [Id.]
We all know — but sometimes tend to forget — that what affects the U.S. economy also affects the world’s economy. So while we sit here wondering what’s going to happen to our Social Security benefits, our tax refunds, Medicare and Medicaid coverage, the price of everything, and whether the poorest of our citizens will even be able to eat next month, the rest of the world trembles right along with us.
But no matter . . . because the Washington Billionaires Club is looking out for us.
*. *. *
And this, my fellow Americans, is the government that half of you voted for.
It’s a pretty safe bet that I’m not the only American who has fantasized recently about going to sleep — maybe not for twenty years, but at least for four — and waking up when this whole nightmare is finally over. Perhaps a medically-induced coma . . . ?
Obviously, that’s not terribly practical, so I began musing about other options. And, thanks to the wonders of the internet, I stumbled across this little tidbit:
There it was: the perfect description of the way I’ve been feeling since the November 5th election . . . and a new word for my vocabulary as an added bonus. But further digging into the good old reliable Merriam Webster Dictionary revealed that . . .
. . . it doesn’t exist.
Ah, the good old unreliable internet! I should have known better than to trust something posted by someone identified as “The Language Nerds.”
There is, however, a noun from which this made-up word most likely evolved: “eremite,” which is defined as a “hermit.” That makes sense.
So, if we can’t sleep it off, we might be able simply to withdraw from all contact with humanity for four years — that is, if there’s any place left on Earth that’s remote enough, but still accessible to a grocery store, a pharmacy, and Amazon delivery. Probably not.
“Damn!”
*. *. *
And then I thought: Are today’s problems really the worst they’ve ever been? Certainly there have been other eras throughout history when people wanted to give up, dig a hole, and climb in. Such as:
The Great Flood (about 4,000 years ago): After 150 days on water and 221 days stranded on a mountain top with a flock of smelly animals, don’t you think Noah ever wished he had just drowned?
The Golden Horde (13th Century): Really scary times for anyone in the path of the marauding Mongols.
The Black Plague (1347-51): The not-so-good old days before modern medicine.
Russia’s Time of Troubles (1598-1613): Actually, those have never really ended for the poor, beleaguered Russian people, have they?
Spanish Flu Pandemic (1918-20): It killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide — more than World War I. And we thought Covid was bad!
The Great Depression (1929-39): It took another world war to get us out of that one.
The Siege of Leningrad (September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944 – a total of 872 days): Just one of the horrors of that war in Europe.
World War II and the Holocaust (1939-45): Six years of pure hell.
*. *. *
Well, that sort of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? Yes, we’ve got some major problems right now — a lot of them, in fact. But are they insoluble? Don’t we have legal options?
I seem to be saying this a lot lately, but I’m going to repeat myself once more, for those who may have forgotten:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
And that, to me, seems the biggest problem of all.
As far back as May of 2023, at a CNN town hall, Donald Trump boasted:
“They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done in 24 hours.” [Edith M. Lederer, AP, July 2, 2024.]
The Ravages of War
And we heard the same blustering assurances throughout the presidential-campaign-we-thought-would-never-end.
But by the time he shockingly won the election, those promises had faded into whispers. And there was no mention at all in his inaugural address of that little dust-up in Ukraine.
The Face of Victory
Now, we hear from the administration’s special representative for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, that Donald Trump has a “solid” strategy to end the war in Ukraine “in months.” [RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, February 1, 2025.]
Months!! Not 24 hours. Not days. Not weeks. Months!!
More months of bombings, and missile attacks, and on-the-ground combat. More people wounded and dying. More children orphaned, parents grieving, homes and lives demolished. More soldiers — Ukrainian, Russian, even North Korean — maimed and killed.
Months.
Keith Kellogg (R), with Donald Trump
We all knew what he was promising was an impossibility — that Vladimir Putin would never capitulate that easily (if at all). And it is surely not Donald Trump’s fault that both Putin and Ukraine’s President Zelensky have proved . . . shall we say . . . steadfast in their demands. That has been the case all along.
But knowing this, why make promises he knows he can’t conceivably keep? Why lie?
Because his loyal supporters are gullible enough to believe the lies, and to vote for him on the basis of those lies . . . that’s why. And it worked; the lies always work.
Promising to quickly lower prices on food and other essentials . . . then turning around and imposing tariffs that are guaranteed to increase, not decrease, those prices . . . is one thing.
But promising to stop the killing and devastation of a war that has already gone on far too long, while knowing full well you can’t do it . . . well, that’s simply unconscionable.
Another week, another reminder that hundreds — perhaps thousands — of prisoners sit and suffer in Russian, Belarusian, and other penal colonies, convicted of having broken laws that were specially concocted for political reasons, but who are in fact guilty only of having spoken the truth about Vladimir Putin, his ally Aleksandr Lukashenko, or Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The list hasn’t changed this week — no additions, no deletions — but there are seven people known to have been newly designated by Russia as “foreign agents.” Two of them are journalists with RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty (RFE/RL): Dmitry Sukharev, who works with Systema, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit; and Andrei Novashov, a contributor to RFE/RL’s Russian and North Caucasus Services. Luckily, both are presently living outside of Russia; but returning there to work would subject them to almost certain arrest and detention. [Current Time and RFE/RL’s Russian Service, January 31, 2025.]
The other five are Elizaveta Fokht and Ilya Abishev of the BBC Russian Service;Vladimir Rayevsky, a contributor to Meduza; Dima Zitser, an educator, writer and blogger; and Anton Suvorkin, a video blogger who covers Russian show business. [Id.]
Seven professionals, whose only “crime” has been reporting the facts surrounding Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. But in Russia, as well as in Belarus, you don’t have to be James Bond to be classified as a “foreign agent”; you merely have to be critical of the regime.
To the seven new designees, I wish a safe and successful future. And to those on our list, already imprisoned — in Russia, Belarus, Crimea and Azerbaijan — once again, my hopes and prayers for a speedy return home:
David Barnes Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus) Gordon Black Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus) Marc Fogle Robert Gilman Stephen James Hubbard Ksenia Karelina Ihar Karney (in Belarus) Vadim Kobzev Andrey Kuznechyk (in Belarus) Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus) Michael Travis Leake Aleksei Liptser Ihar Losik (in Belarus) Daniel Martindale Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan) 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)
And my message to Donald Trump is this:
“Amidst all of the hubbub of your new administration, it is imperative that these innocent men and women not be forgotten. Negotiations for their safe release have been underway for some time; President Joe Biden succeeded in bringing home 16 innocent people on August 1st of last year. So whatever you do, do not drop the ball on this. The people you promised to represent are counting on you.”
On January 3rd of this year, retired physician and self-styled UFOlogist Dr. Steven Greer had this to say about the mysterious drone sightings being reported over the U.S. eastern seaboard:
“[This] ‘alien invasion’ is a staged distraction to mask something far more significant: decades-long, government-funded, illegal UFO research projects. . . . Coming forward in the next 30 days or so, they [alleged insiders] will bring forth positive evidence of this and the fact that these programs have been run illegally and outside of constitutional [sic] oversight.” [Sahiba Tahleel, soapcentral.com, January 3, 2025.]
Pointing out that Dr. Greer most likely meant to refer to Congressional oversight, not “constitutional,” and indicating a healthy dose of skepticism, I nevertheless expressed my eager anticipation at the arrival of this exciting news. And I marked my calendar.
*. *. *
It’s been exactly 30 days today, and I’m still waiting. I haven’t seen, or heard about anyone else seeing, any of these:
. . . or even these:
. . . which the government continues to assure us are legally licensed, non-threatening, non-hostile, non-invasive craft, and that we can all sleep peacefully in our beds tonight.
Me . . . Sleeping Peacefully Tonight
Nor have I heard anything further from the good doctor or his “insiders.” So I ask you, Dr. Greer: What’s going on?
Because some of us would really like to blink again.
Sounds like s.o.p. (standard operating procedure) for a coup, doesn’t it? Never having been involved in one, I don’t have first-hand knowledge; but it seems about right to me.
An Old-Fashioned Coup d’Etat
And if you’re double-teaming . . . one guy firing all the “unfriendlies” and bringing in his own loyalists, while the other one — the tech expert — sends in his storm troopers to take possession of the essential data . . . it’s that much quicker and easier.
But that’s supposed to be the modus operandi of the oppressed citizenry hoping to replace the old order with a new, more benevolent one . . . not of the people already in charge. It appears, however, that someone forgot to inform Donald Trump and Elon Musk of that little detail.
The two charter members of Washington’s new Billionaire’s Club have made it quite clear from the get-go that they intend to streamline the federal government, cutting costs wherever they choose, by whatever means they choose, without considering the human cost or the trickle-down effect of their actions.
Coming from two titans of business, that seems like the poorest of strategies.
But aside from the personal and economic effects of their slash-and-burn methods, what is more frightening is the fact that it was Musk — a person with no legitimate governmental authority — who sent in his team to lock career civil servants out of the computer systems at OPM — the Office of Personnel Management — that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees. Even some of the most senior career employees have had their access to some systems revoked, leaving Musk and his team of techies in possession of all of that data, and no oversight as to how it is going to be used . . . or by whom. [Tim Reid, Reuters, January 31, 2025.]
And, as he has done with others who have been earmarked for termination since his inauguration a short eleven days ago, Trump has utilized a unique way of getting rid of the existing staff: he has offered them the option of accepting a buyout (apparently eight months with pay) in lieu of being fired. In fact, the OPM memos that went out encouraged personnel to accept the offer and “take a vacation to a ‘dream destination.’”[Id.]
I think I’d be more inclined to use the money to pay the rent while I looked for a new job . . . but that’s just me.
Now, I’m no mathematical genius, but this is all too simple. If you have, just as an example, 100 employees, each earning $60,000 a year (which is modest by Washington standards, but I’m just hypothesizing), being given eight months’ full pay, that’s going to add up to around $4,000,000 for people doing absolutely nothing. And that’s in addition to the full salaries and benefits that will be paid to the new people coming in to replace them.
So someone please tell me: How is that cutting costs?
Simple answer: It isn’t. What it is, though, is clearing the way to bring in your own people, people loyal to you through thick and thin . . . or at least until they wake up one morning and realize that “loyalty” means something entirely different to you than it does to most people, and suddenly their jobs are also in jeopardy.
But they should have understood from the start that they were placing their faith in a former “reality” TV star whose two favorite words were:
“You’re fired!”
Practicing for the White House Years
But this isn’t a privately-owned corporation, or a TV show; it’s the federal government. So my question is:
Already saddened by the major news items of the day — the loss of 67 people in a horrific plane crash over the Potomac River outside of Washington, the continuing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and a sinkhole in Japan that has swallowed a 74-year-old man and his three-ton truck, to name just a few — I managed to continue reading, and found myself here:
Because I had come to the realization, after reading on, that I can no longer adhere to my own self-imposed restriction against commenting on a subject I have always considered too divisive to touch: U.S. politics.
Full disclosure: I am neither Democrat nor Republican. I have always voted for the candidate I think best qualified for the job, be it president, senator, congressperson, dogcatcher, or water commissioner. And I am deathly afraid of extremism in any direction.
I also abhor conflict. Don’t get me wrong — a good, solid, intellectual give-and-take is challenging and stimulating, as long as it’s based on fact rather than bias, and as long as all the participants respect one another’s rights to their opinions. But when anger and undisguised hatred rear their ugly heads, I’m gone.
And unfortunately, any discussion of American politics these days seems to devolve into just that: anger and hatred. It brings out the worst in people. So, to avoid the inevitable snarky (and worse) comments, I have thus far tended to steer clear of the subject in this blog.
But, to quote an unidentified — but clearly wiser — individual from the dim, distant past:
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
I believe that. So I have taken the requisite deep breath, given the matter careful consideration, and decided to take the plunge. Because — while my voice may not reach very far — I can no longer remain completely silent.
Not while my country is being destroyed from the inside.
*. *. *
And what was it that pushed me over the edge today? Actually, it was a series of articles, all concerning edicts — excuse me, executive orders — emanating from the White House Oval Office.
The first was so ludicrous as to defy belief: “Employees at multiple federal agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures by Friday afternoon, according to internal memos obtained by ABC News that cited two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office seeking to curb diversity and equity programs in the federal government.” [Selia Wang, Dr. Mark Abdelmalek, Anne Flaherty and Will Steakin, ABC News, January 31, 2025.]
Clearly, the leader of the free world has nothing more pressing to occupy his time than worrying about parts of speech and email signatures. And, equally clearly, he doesn’t comprehend that the intent of DEI is not to hire under-qualified people because of their race, religion or gender identity; but rather to hire the most qualified people in spite of those attributes.
*. *. *
Next came the press conference held by brand-new, ultra-right-wing, five-years-out-of-St. Anselm College, and new mom, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, whose job it is to say whatever her boss tells her to say . . . and who seems more than happy with her post as “Head Trumpeter.”
Karoline Leavitt
Questioned extensively about Trump’s response to yesterday’s plane crash over the Potomac, she dutifully parroted everything he has already had to say on the subject, and then some. While acknowledging that the investigation is still underway, she completely agreed with his conclusions that the helicopter was flying too high (unproven), that it was the fault of the air traffic controllers who must surely have belonged to some minority group (also unproven), or that extraterrestrials had zapped the plane with their Venusian gamma rays. (All right . . . I made up that last one; but it’s no less plausible than any other unproven, as-yet-uninvestigated theory.)
And finally, when asked about Trump’s use of expletives in laying blame on Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg for issues at the Federal Aviation Administration, she had this to say:
“I think one of the things that the American people love most about this President is that he often says what they lack the courage to say themselves. I think yesterday at this podium you heard President Trump express great frustration, perhaps even anger, with the previous administration’s policies, many of which have led to the crises that our country is currently facing.” [Bernd Debusmann Jr., BBC News, January 31, 2025.]
Okay . . . I can buy the “frustration” and “anger” parts of that assessment. Because that is how he always reacts when things don’t go his way: he lashes out, and blames someone he doesn’t like.
*. *. *
And speaking of striking out in anger, let’s talk about purges.
Not satisfied with having fired dozens of government employees in multiple departments for doing the jobs that were assigned to them; stripping several former officials, living under death threats for having done their jobs in the previous administration, of their Secret Service protection; dishonoring and removing the security detail from a four-star Army General who has served his country in ways that are completely unknown to Donald Trump, but who had the temerity to speak the truth; and having alienated several of America’s staunchest allies with his characterisstic threats and bullying tactics . . . he next turned his attention to the agency that, while not always perfect, has performed tirelessly since 1908 to keep this country as safe as possible from both external and internal enemies: the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Was this because of some breach of security within the FBI? No. A scandal at the highest (or any) level? Nope. Money missing from the budget? Again, no.
It was because agents did the job they were assigned: to investigate the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 — an insurrection that, if not ordered, was at least enabled and even publicly encouraged by this man himself — and to arrest any and all violent perpetrators.
And because he personally has continued for four years to praise those violators of the law and the U.S. Constitution . . . and saw it as his first duty upon taking office on January 20th to pardon the very same criminals who have been duly tried and convicted in U.S. courts of law . . . he now feels it necessary to finish it off by destroying the lives of the people who, in protecting our Senators and Members of Congress from harm and possible death, did their jobs that day.
If that isn’t a Stalin-esque purge, then I don’t know what is. And we don’t do that in America.
Or we didn’t, before January 20th.
*. *. *
Now, do you still want to know why I’m in a very dark place today?
If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know that I am a huge fan of historical trivia. I subscribe to — and periodically comment on — a column produced by the History Channel, called “This Day In History,” which provides me with a wealth of facts, both meaningful and silly, to add to my collection.
Yesterday, as I was looking through the day’s current news headlines, I found myself wondering what they would look like to people reading “This Day In History” 50 or 100 years from now. And I ended up with a very satisfying case of the giggles.
Because, aside from the usual range of bad news to worse news to unbearable news, there were a few items that didn’t really qualify as legitimate news, but that someone obviously considered interesting enough to print.
Allow me, please, to share with you a couple of tidbits from CNN’s “5 Things PM” column of January 30, 2025:
“As artificial intelligence has made fake photos and videos much easier to produce, a growing number of American teenagers say they are being misled by AI-generated content on the internet.”
Boy, you sure can’t fool those teenagers! I wonder how long it took them to figure out that not everything on the internet can be taken as gospel. I envision someone, say 50 years down the road, reacting to that item: “Well, duh!”
*. *. *
And . . .
“Those commercials during NFL games can be tempting, but you should be aware that the foods they’re advertising contain a sizable chunk of your daily recommended sodium intake, a new study found.”
Okay, so it’s not just the teenagers who have been asleep at the switch. It seems the older generations have also failed to notice that those nachos and chili dogs are . . . well . . . a little bit salty. I wonder whether the next couple of generations will still not give a damn.
*. *. *
And one more . . .
“Netflix is planning a reboot of ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ which was based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.”
So, what are they saying . . . that today’s tech-savvy, TikTok-crazy, Dungeons-and-Dragons-obsessed kids are going to be excited about a show that was already mawkishly sentimental and unrealistic 50 years ago? Of course, by 2075, they’ll be making fun of TikTok, D&D, and what passes for AI today, and calling us dinosaurs. So it’s all relative, I guess.
I don’t know about you, but I actually enjoyed that little tiptoe through the trivia — it was a welcome change from the daily diet of dismal drama. In fact, I think the world could use a lot more silliness.
Whether it’s a provision in a commercial contract, a labor dispute, a divorce settlement, or a question of whether the batter sliding into first base was safe or out . . . it’s usually wise to bring in a skilled mediator (or umpire) to bring clarity out of chaos.
Or, on an international scale, to prevent World War III.
The Two “Volodyas” — Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky
But the mediator’s job is to listen to both sides, to consider the legal issues, and to offer a reasonable, mutually beneficialsolution . . . and, first and foremost, to be completely disinterested and objective.
The war between Russia and Ukraine is just that: it is between Russia (the invader) and Ukraine (the defender). Between Putin and Zelensky. Not Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, or Recep Tayyip Erdogan, or any other president or prime minister with a vested interest in the outcome. And every last one of them has such a vested interest, and an agenda of their own.
Trump and Xi: A Dynamic Duo
Putin and Zelensky must find their own solution.
So what happens when one of the parties, while claiming to desire a settlement, continues to refuse to meet with the other party on the basis of one lousy excuse or another? In this case, it isn’t just the fact that we have two very strong-willed individuals, each determined to protect his country’s interests.
No, that wasn’t difficult enough. Now we have to add another wrinkle: Putin’s claim that Volodymyr Zelensky is “illegitimate.”
That is indeed what he has said . . . only he’s not casting aspersions on Zelensky’s mother. He claims that the President of Ukraine is not the legitimate president in accordance with Ukraine’s constitution, because (in Putin’s view), had the country not been under martial law, there would have been an election on March 31, 2024, and Zelensky might not have won, thereby ending his presidency on May 20th of last year.
Well, that proves it: Putin flunked Logic.101.
Think about it: He invades Ukraine (on February 24, 2022) — a country that is of no conceivable threat to him; he bombs the living daylights out of them for three years, eventually occupying some 20% of their sovereign territory; he forces them to live under martial law, thus necessitating postponement of their regular presidential election; and then he declares their duly-elected President . . .
Illegitimate!
Maybe he didn’t flunk Logic.101 after all; maybe he simply rewrote it.
But, as the silly saying goes, it is what it is. So what has happened? It has become everyone else’s problem, and what we have is a cacophony of voices in many languages, each proclaiming that they have the best solution to a problem that was never theirs in the first place.
Yes, it is uquestionable that the outcome of this war will affect the entire world; in fact, it already has. Kyiv is not Las Vegas; what happens in Ukraine does not stay in Ukraine. And so, in that sense, it is indeed the world’s problem. But is it not, first and foremost, a problem that needs to be solved to the satisfaction of the two principal parties?
I don’t know how it will be possible to force the protagonists of this drama to talk to each other, mano-a-mano. But until they do, it appears that all of the well-intentioned advocacy from others will continue to be of little or no effect.
And one of two things will happen: either the war will drag on, or Zelensky will be forced to cede territory that rightfully belongs to his people. Either way, Ukraine will be royally . . .
The Blog About Everything … and Sometimes Nothing 