While Europe and the Middle East have dominated the international news of late, it hasn’t been all quiet on the Far Eastern front either. Though Japan, Thailand and Singapore still provide idyllic destinations for the vacationer seeking the beauty and historic charm of Asian cultures, we can’t ignore the rumblings and grumblings of those nearby totalitarian twins, China and North Korea.

We’ve all been aware of China’s designs on Taiwan; their air “exercises” perilously close to Japan; and now, a joint “exercise” with Russia in the skies overlooking — but wisely not entering the air space of — Alaska. And that, for the edification of the geographically challenged, is in the United States of America.

Oh-oh.

When you poke a hornet’s nest — in this case, the U.S. — you’d better have an escape plan. Because those hornets, while generally happy to be encased peacefully in their nest, do not take kindly to being poked. And when aroused . . . well . . . you can imagine.

So I present to you the ultimate anti-poking device: The U.S. Air Force B-2 Stealth Bomber.

And this is not just any old bomber. This one — or its twin — was part of the world’s largest naval drills recently held off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii, in which it proved its ability to take out a decommissioned amphibious assault ship (the USS TARAWA) with a single, inexpensive guided bomb.

Analysts have called this a “very significant” factor in any hypothetical future conflict between China and the United States. China has long relied on the size of its navy (the world’s largest), its stock of thousands of missiles on the Chinese mainland, and its ability to provide air cover to its ships from land-based aircraft. But analysts have said that the B-2 could negate some of China’s advantages with its long-range fire capability. [Brad Lendon, CNN, July 27, 2024.]

According to a U.S. Air Force website, arming these bombers with relatively inexpensive, effective, precision-guided bombs with warheads of up to 2,000 pounds “could give the Air Force bombers the ‘anti-ship lethality’ of a submarine-launched torpedo without the liabilities of a submarine.” [CNN, id.]

Following the U.S. air exercise, a press release from the U.S. Navy’s Third Fleet said: “This capability is an answer to an urgent need to quickly neutralize maritime threats over massive expanses of ocean around the world at minimal costs.” [CNN, id.]

That’s good news for the free world. For China, well . . . let’s call it a cautionary tale.

So, President Xi, I hope you’re paying attention. The United States — in fact, the entire civilized world — wants peace. We do not want war. We will do everything within our power to avoid it. Seriously, who wants to be exterminated? But that does not mean we are sitting idly by while you bully and threaten and shake your fists at us. For your own sake, and for the sake of the entire world, please don’t ever underestimate our capabilities, or our determination.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/29/24

NOTE: Comments on events in North Korea are coming up in a separate post, later today. Stay tuned . . .

Oh my God! Today’s headlines!

Israel! Hungary! Paris! Russia! Belarus! Celine Dion’s performance! (Oh wait — that was good news. Does it qualify as news?)

No time for that. Congrats, Celine. Gotta run now . . .

Where’s my iPad? Where are my glasses? Did I brush my teeth this morning?

Slow down, world . . . you’re killing me!

Brendochka
7/28/24

A chilling thought, even today. But in the mid-1960s, as a young mother of a toddler and an infant, it was something for which I was so completely unprepared, the experience actually made me physically ill. And the memory of it still does.

It was during the Cold War, when the world was focused on the threat of possible attack from the Soviet Union, and thoughts of World War II and the Nazi horrors were 20 years behind us. I was living in California, somewhere south of San Francisco, with my two children and then husband, who worked as an industrial engineer.

I was a stay-at-home mom at the time, and when I learned that we had been invited for dinner at the home of a friend of my husband’s from work, I was delighted. We had even been told to bring the children, as they had little ones of their own.

I don’t even remember their names now, but I do remember being told that they were from Germany, and thinking only that that probably meant the meal would be delicious. And on the following Saturday evening, packing up diapers and bottles of formula for the baby, off we went.

The evening was going well. The man and his wife were charming and hospitable; the children — ours and theirs — were behaving well; and, as expected, the food was outstanding. After a couple of drinks for the adults, talk turned to the couple’s history — where they were from, when they had come to the U.S., etc. And the husband decided to pull out an old family photo album to share.

I love looking at other people’s pictures, and especially old ones. We were happily leafing through the collection, seeing charming shots of happy people in 1930s Germany, when the husband turned a page and pointed proudly to a photo of a man he identified as his brother, who now lived in Argentina . . . a tall, distinguished-looking gentleman wearing, not an army uniform, but the distinctive black uniform and unmistakable insignia of the German SS.

And my blood froze.

As, apparently, did the rest of me. Because my husband immediately noticed, and didn’t argue when I suddenly developed a headache and said I needed to get home to put the babies to bed. Shaking, and choking back the bile that kept trying to force its way up my throat, I managed to say a reasonably polite good night and thanks for a lovely evening, and made a beeline for the car.

And as soon as the car doors were closed, the violent trembling began. I couldn’t stop it; all I could do was keep taking deep, gasping breaths until I was finally able to choke out some actual words. I said that I realized there was nothing to be done about the work situation, but that I would never, under any circumstances, see or speak to those people again. I needn’t have bothered — he understood completely, and had been as shocked as I was.

Well, nearly as shocked. He wasn’t Jewish.

*. *. *

I’ve had other, not quite so close, encounters with the American Nazi Party: a campaigner for the party’s founder, George Lincoln Rockwell, trying to hand me propaganda leaflets on the street in Virginia; and a demonstration on the Memorial Bridge connecting Washington, D.C.’s Lincoln Memorial and Virginia’s Arlington Cemetery. In the first instance, I told the scumbag to go to hell; in the second, I reported the illegal demonstration to the police, who promptly broke it up.

But nothing affected me as fiercely as coming into direct contact with an individual — a naturalized American citizen — who proudly showed off his Nazi roots to a total stranger.

And even now, nearly 80 years after the end of that horrific war and the Holocaust that took so many millions of lives, neo-Nazi groups continue to exist among us. Hatred, it seems, never dies.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/28/24

And the star of this week’s “Hostages for Putin” extravaganza is . . .

Alsu Kurmasheva, age 47, wife and mother, journalist for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Arrested in Kazan while doing her job on October 18, 2024, for alleged failure to register as a “foreign agent.” After being held for nearly two months, additional charges of allegedly disseminating “fake news” were filed on December 12th. And then, nothing . . . until she was suddenly and hastily brought to trial on July 22, 2024, convicted of spreading false information about the Russian army, and sentenced to a prison term of 6-1/2 years.

Bam! Done and done.

*. *. *

On the same day, a court in Yekaterinburg convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage, sentencing him to 16 years in prison. Both trials were scheduled suddenly, concluded rapidly, and held behind closed doors, the outcomes preordained.

*. *. *

The timing and the suddenness of the two trials has naturally raised questions as to how they can be anything but intentional, and what that intention is. When asked, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov — without whom one of my essays about Russia would surely not be complete — had this to say:

“I have no answer to this question. I leave this question unanswered.”

Stumped at last, eh, Dmitry?

Of course, you have no answer. Because the obvious one is that Kurmasheva and Gershkovich are two valuable additions to Putin’s collection of American hostages.

The U.S. Department of State has strongly urged all Americans presently in Russia to leave . . . before it’s too late. I can’t believe there is anyone foolish enough to still be there; I would have been gone long ago.

Just sayin’ . . .

*. *. *

And, as always, we pay our weekly tribute to all those HOSTAGES locked away in Russian prisons for strictly political reasons:

Vladimir Kara-Murza
Evan Gershkovich
Alsu Kurmasheva
Paul Whelan
Ilya Yashin
Staff Sgt. Gordon Black
Robert Woodland Romanov
Boris Akunin
Marc Hilliard Fogel
Asya Kazantseva
Ilya Barabanov
Aleksandr Skobov
Antonina Favorskaya
Oleg Orlov
Boris Kagarlitsky
Oleg Navalny
Ksenia Karelina
Ksenia Fadeyeva
Lilia Chanysheva
Vadim Ostanin
Sergei Udaltsov
Danuta Perednya
Olesya Krivtsova
Konstantin Gabov
Sergey Karelin
Sergey Mingazov
Michael Travis Leake

. . . and the hundreds of others whose names remain unknown to me. You have not been, and will not be, forgotten.

Brendochka
7/28/24

What do you say about a candidate who flat out tells an entire segment of the U.S. population — the Christian right — to get out there and vote him into office, and that he doesn’t give a crap whether they ever vote again? And I quote:

“You won’t have to (vote) anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians. You gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again — we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.” [Danya Gainor, CNN, July 27, 2024, on Trump’s July 26 speech in West Palm Beach.]

Is this a man who loves his country, who truly wants to keep it from being steam-rolled by Russia, by China, by North Korea?

Or is this a guy who just wants to get his fat ass back in that comfy chair in the Oval Office?

Now look at this picture. Not at Trump being his usual bombastic self. Look at the expression on Putin’s face. Doesn’t that tell you all you need to know? Because Vladimir Putin may be evil . . . but he’s not stupid. He’s got Trump’s number, and it’s a big #1. He knows Trump is all about getting himself back into the White House for four more years, after which . . . well, he just doesn’t give a shit.

And my go-to source of current Kremlinology, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said it perfectly just this week, when asked about the Kremlin’s assessment of how another Trump presidency might affect Russia:

“We have never worn and do not wear rose-coloured spectacles. (Trump) is a representative of the U.S. political elite, which is now all absolutely suffering from total anti-Russian sentiment.

When he was president, under Trump, the Americans started this sanctions race, under Trump a huge number of sanctions were imposed against our country, and in this respect he is not much different for us from everyone else.

Maybe he shows a little more political wisdom in terms of maintaining channels of dialogue. But de facto it does not have a special impact on anything, and we should be aware of that.” [Reuters, July 26, 2024.]

But that’s not really Moscow dismissing Trump’s importance to them, as you might think on a quick reading. What it actually is, is typical Kremlin double-speak, telling us what they want us to believe. While Vlad, also a narcissistic all-out-for-number-one kind of guy, will back Trump’s candidacy to the max, because it’s to his own advantage to have his “good buddy” — the candidate he can manipulate as he does his own true believers — back in the seat of power.

Confusing, isn’t it?

But, hey . . . that’s just politics. And the rest of us — the smart ones who stay out of the political dung heap — just have to live with it.

But we do get to vote.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/27/24

Today is July 27th. And according to calendarr.com, there are three things to celebrate today:

National Disability Independence Day. I think we can all get behind this one. No one wants to be disabled, or dependent. So, all you able-bodied folks, go on out and buy whatever you can afford — a scooter, a wheelchair, a Rollator, a walker, a pair of crutches, or a cane — and give it to someone who needs it. You may just be paying it forward.

Well, that was grim. But on a happier note, there’s . . .

National Scotch Day. Google tells me that this is in recognition of the day in 1494 that Scotch whisky was first mentioned in the rolls of the Exchequer of Scotland — in other words, the first time whisky was taxed in Scotland. I don’t know anyone who would celebrate taxation; but Scotch whisky — now, there’s something worth raising a glass to. Make mine Chivas Regal, please . . . on the rocks.

National Creme Brûlée Day. And while it doesn’t really go well with that Scotch, on its own it is a heavenly way to polish off a good meal. So yeah, I’ll celebrate this one too. And don’t forget the whipped cream.

So if you were thinking that life hasn’t given you much to smile about lately, just grab a spoon and a shot glass, and have at it. Because tomorrow is Parents’ Day . . . and you know your kids aren’t going to remember that one! But who needs them, when you’ve got Scotch and dessert?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/27/24

First of all, it’s an acronym, formed from the initials of the five original member countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

But what does it do?

“Originally identified to highlight investment opportunities, the grouping evolved into an actual geopolitical bloc, with their governments meeting annually at formal summits and coordinating multilateral policies since 2009 . . .” [Wikipedia, last edited July 26, 2024]. Membership has doubled in size, and now includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE); and their meetings are not limited to the annual summit.

* NOTE: The August 2023 meeting in Johannesburg was attended, not by Vladimir Putin, but on his behalf by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, due to the outstanding arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Putin in March of 2023 for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

And the potential for further growth is great. The following countries are said to have applied for, or expressed interest in, membership:

In Africa: Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe; in the Americas: Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Peru, and Venezuela; in Asia: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, and Yemen; and in Europe: Belarus. [Wikipedia, id.]

That’s a lot of countries!

So we’re still left asking: What is their purpose? That, of course, is the all-important question. According to BBC.com (Feb. 1, 2024):

“The group was designed to bring together the world’s most important developing countries, to challenge the political and economic power of the wealthier nations of North America and Western Europe.”

Oh.

In searching for a BRICS website, I at first found only specific sites referencing their former and upcoming (2024) annual summits. When I tried to open the 2023 site, I was informed that my computer was in danger of being hacked. Needless to say, I got the hell out of there in a hurry.

But never fear — Vladimir Putin is here! Russia has been assigned the presidency for 2024, and he has published a statement . . .

Holy crap! I had continued on to open the site for the 2024 summit, to be held in Kazan, Russia, and hosted by none other than President Putin himself in October of this year. And when I expanded the page by clicking on “More details,” which included the entirety of his official announcement, I was suddenly booted out, with a message saying that the server had stopped responding.

But before that happened, I managed to get a screen shot of this:

What was going on? Russian censorship at work? A simple technical glitch? What the hell . . . ??!!!

I decided to try again later; but in the meantime — and particularly in view of the makeup of its membership — I began to wonder: Exactly whom are they trying to replace?

*. *. *

Luckily, perseverance paid off. It turned out there is a website: http://www.infobrics.org. Although I still couldn’t find Putin’s statement, this did bring me to a very lengthy summary of a meeting that had been held on June 10th in historic Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, which included the expanded membership (BRICS+) and focused on a wide range of economic and environmental matters . . . with a generous sprinkling of political double-speak, such as:

“The BRICS+ approach to reach key decisions through consensus and extensive consultations marks a major shift from characteristic historical hegemonic influence and marginalisation [sic] associated with the unipolar global order associated with exclusionary dominant Western influence.”

And this:

“However, emboldened discussions point to major progress towards collective influence for the group and for developing countries within international organizations such as the UN, the World Trade Organization and the Bretton Woods institutions. A collective approach in the multilateral institutions is crucial in leveraging growing influence to realise [sic] a level playing field in international economic and political participation, fostering a more stable and peaceful global community.”

*. *. *

And there it is: Right out of the Vladimir Putin / Xi Jinping manual for the creation of their New World Order: telling the West, in effect, that you had your chance, the world has serious problems, and now it’s our turn to fix things . . . the Putin/Xi way.

I need to know more; but between Vladimir Putin’s BRICS+ and Viktor Orban’s Patriots for Europe, I definitely feel a nightmare coming on tonight.

*. *. *

And by the way, I still can’t open http://www.brics-russia2024.ru. The server refuses to respond. Sounds like a Moscow restaurant in the 1980s.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/27/24

No, you’re not imagining it: I have been cranking out more than one post on most days recently. The reason?

TOO MUCH NEWS!

The world is spinning 😵‍💫 out of control, and I’m having trouble keeping up with it. I’m in a writing frenzy, and I can’t find the brakes.

Sorry to cut this short. . . can’t stay. Gotta go write now.

Brendochka
7/26/24

Everyone dies, you know.

There’s no use denying it. And the older you get — the closer you come to that inevitability — the more you start thinking about things like what you’ve done with your life, what you wish you’d done (or not done) with your life, and what you’re going to miss out on after you’ve left this life. And yesterday, while commemorating the life (and loss) of one of my personal heroes, my mind took a detour in that last direction. As usual, it came up with some funny thoughts. (That’s funny as in “strange,” not funny as in “ha-ha” — though there were a few of those as well.)

Obviously, most of us would say that we will miss being here for the lives of our families: children, grandchildren, spouse, etc. That’s a given. But beyond that, if today were my last, I would sorely miss . . .

Having my book published. Yes, that’s the book that’s been sitting, nearly finished, for the past year, hoping some Prince Charming of a publisher will come knocking on my door out here in the Georgia countryside, holding the glass slipper that will fit only my gnarled old foot. Of course, that should tell me to get off my gnarled old ass (assuming I’m still here tomorrow) and do something about it. But we’ll see.

*. *. *

Haagen-Dazs. My guilty pleasure, especially coffee flavor. I openly admit to having a little 3.6-ounce cup of it every evening, and occasionally an extra “dose” now and then when I just can’t resist or I’m having a bad day. I hope they have ice cream in Heaven (if that’s where I’m going); otherwise, it won’t really be that heavenly.

*. *. *

Midsomer Murders reruns. There are still some I haven’t quite figured out, even after half a dozen viewings. Those Barnaby detective chief inspectors are brilliant, and let’s face it . . . if there’s any reality to the characterizations, the British criminal mind is positively, diabolically genius! Sick . . . And genius.

*. *. *

Downton Abbey – the third movie. If I lived to be 150, there could never be enough Downton Abbey. It’s like Haagen-Dazs for the soul.

*. *. *

The Election. You know — the election. November 5, 2024. Trump vs. Biden . . . excuse me, Trump vs. Harris. I just have to know whether or not to be glad I’m dead.

*. *. *

Fall. My favorite season, when the heat and humidity finally lift and the air becomes crisp and cool, the leaves change to the most amazing colors, and . . . Oh, wait a minute. I’m not in New England any longer. Oh, well . . . it’s still nicer than the summer heat.

*. *. *

Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, Elon Musk, Donald Trump . . . and all the other easy bull’s-eyes I have so much fun firing at from day to day in my “Blog About Everything.” Thanks for being my targets, guys; there probably wouldn’t have been a blog without you.

*. *. *

And . . . not really finally, but just to wind this up before it becomes too long for anyone to want to read . . .

My Blog. It hasn’t gone viral. Hell, it hasn’t even caught a cold. But my friends seem to have enjoyed it, and writing it has been a great joy to me. And, since I expect to survive for a while longer, I intend to keep writing it . . . at least as long as my iPad holds out.

*. * . *

Oh, and one more thing. I’ll tell you something I will definitely not miss: Freakin’ Christmas In July!!!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/26/24

What can I say about Viktor Orban that I haven’t already said?

No, this is not a eulogy. Well, not for him, though perhaps — if he and his cohorts are not stopped — for democracy in Europe.

Earlier I commented on his single-handed, underhanded attempt to convince Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Volodymyr Zelensky — and even the still-not-elected-but-convicted-felon Donald Trump — that he, the great and wonderful Orban, is capable of bringing a satisfactory end to Russia’s war against Ukraine. Seriously.

But wait . . . there’s more.

It seems that Viktor Orban — little noticed by the general public outside of Hungary until fairly recently — is well on his way to realizing his dream of reestablishing the Habsburg Empire, apparently with himself as a modern-day version of the Kaiser.

Yeah, I know. It sounds like the plot of a Mel Brooks comedy. But this is no “Robin Hood, Men In Tights.” This is serious business . . . and it all revolves around a group that calls itself “Patriots for Europe.”

The problem is, they’re anything but what they profess to be.

What they are is a coalition of EU member countries falling into step behind Orban and his far-right demagoguery, designed to give him the political platform he needs to achieve his goal of leading a “new” Europe . . . one in which “democracy” presumably will become a non-word, and extreme nationalism will rule the day.

The founding members of his club — Austria, Bohemia (the Czech Republic) and Hungary — once formed the core of the original Habsburg Empire. And earlier this month, France’s National Rally party and Italy’s Lega signed on to join the Patriots, following a growing list of hard-right parties throughout Europe. Orban is hopeful that Slovenia and Slovakia will not be far behind.

Announcing the formation of Patriots for Europe, Orban said: “We are creating a political formation that in my view will take off like a rocket and very quickly become the largest group of the European right. The sky is the limit.” [Matthew Karnitsching, Politico, July 12, 2024.]

*. *. *

(Why do I keep hearing echoes of Adolph? . . . )

*. *. *

One of Orban’s staunchest allies is Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia, who recently survived an assassination attempt that he now says — not surprisingly — was carried out by an “activist of the Slovak opposition.” He is an avowed fan of Vladimir Putin, and has said he wishes he had been well enough to travel to Moscow with Viktor Orban to meet with Putin, commenting:

“I want to congratulate Hungary’s prime minister and express my admiration for his decision to visit Kyiv and Moscow without any hesitation. If my health had permitted it, I would gladly have joined him.” [Politico, id.]

*. *. *

Though all of the far-right parties that have joined the Patriots to date (with the exception of Austria) are members of NATO as well as the EU, they are, to varying degrees, admirers of Vladimir Putin. In a recent interview with Axel Springer media outlets, Orban said:

“Putin can’t lose. The notion that Russia can be defeated is very difficult to fathom.“ [Politico, id.]

Whether that’s a prognostication, or simply wishful thinking, I don’t know. But it is a clear indication of Mr. Orban’s mindset, and his ambitions. In today’s political environment, his is a voice not to be ignored.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/26/24