On this two-year anniversary of the start of my weekly tribute to the political prisoners being held hostage by the tyrannical regimes of Vladimir Putin and his allies, I find my righteous anger at those regimes tempered somewhat by feelings of shame and guilt . . . not from any overt acts of my own, but on behalf of my country.
For yesterday morning, I awoke — as we all did — to the unfathomable news that forces of the United States military had, without provocation and in violation of international law, invaded the sovereign nation of Venezuela, forcibly kidnapped its president and his wife, and transported them to the U.S. mainland for prosecution on drug charges.
Yesterday, my country — the nation founded on the tenets of peace and democracy — became the hostage-taker. A public announcement from Donald Trump declared that “we” — meaning he — would hereafter “run” Venezuela until a “safe, proper and judicious transition” could be effected.
Thus, the self-proclaimed “President of Peace” officially became the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, raining war and devastation upon the Earth — and, I fear, upon the hostages held in those faraway prisons by Putin and his minions. For we have joined the league of those who trade in human misery, and place no value on the sanctity of life. Who, then, will be willing to negotiate with the U.S. government, when we can no longer be trusted to do so in good faith? What have we left to offer as a guarantee of our supposedly noble intentions?
*. *. *
But that is no reason for me, or any of us, to abandon those prisoners still praying for release. And so, with the addition of this week’s newest political hostages, here they are for the first time in 2026:
Victims of Greed:
The President, First Lady, and citizens of Venezuela
Europeans Under Threat:
The people of NATO and EU member states
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
Andrei Chapiuk 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
James Scott Rhys Anderson (British) David Barnes (American) Gordon Black (American) Hayden Davies (British) 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)
Please do not lose hope. The one constant in life is change . . . and the next surprise may turn out to be a better one.
My first impulse this morning was to start with a mea culpa to the people of Venezuela . . . but I didn’t launch the invasion.
Then I considered a plea for forgiveness to all of America’s traditional allies . . . but I had no part in the decision.
Hell . . . I didn’t even vote for him. Not in 2016, or 2020, or 2024.
I even gave a fleeting thought to renouncing — symbolically, at least — my treasured U.S. citizenship. But I found that to be impossible. I was born here, and I have spent a lifetime loving my country, warts and all. I have verbally defended her to people from other lands who saw only her faults, and proudly pointed out her many incomparable virtues.
And, despite everything we are experiencing, I continue to hold out hope for her salvation and renewal when these dark days are behind us at last.
But — short of putting my fist through a door, or running down the street screaming “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore” — I need an outlet for the shock, the anger, and the grief I am feeling today. And so I write.
My country — my America — does not start wars. We do not invade countries that are not threatening our borders. We do not kidnap heads of other governments. We do not pretend to be engaged in a “war on drugs” when the real target is oil.
But that is precisely what he — not “we” — has done. But “we” are complicit, because we didn’t stop him. The signs were there when he blew the first suspected drug boat out of the water, taking the lives of his first victims. His verbal threats could not have been more explicit. And his intentions were made clearer when he deployed the USS GERALD R. FORD to the waters off the coast of Venezuela.
No one — not the Supreme Court, not our elected members of Congress, and not his supposed “advisers” — has held him accountable for a single one of his illegal, unconstitutional actions over the past ten months. So why wouldn’t he think he had carte blanche to carry his madness to the next level?
This man who calls himself the “Peace President”; who preaches to other world leaders about legality and human rights; who claims to have ended seven or eight or nine conflicts around the world; who threw a tantrum when he was denied the Nobel Peace Prize . . . this person has now positioned himself as the single most denigrated head of state on the planet.
When even the worst of the worst — tyrannical regimes like Russia, Iran, North Korea and China — have denounced his action, one would expect that he might be having second thoughts. Instead, he declares that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” [BBC, January 3, 2026.]
Where have we heard those words before? Oh, yes . . . from Vladimir Putin, in regard to his conditions for ending the war in Ukraine.
And what about our allies — the countries of Europe, Canada, Japan, and others? Their silence thus far has been deafening, and understandably so. Just when they must have been thinking he couldn’t get any worse . . .
*. *. *
So, what is the solution? If I knew that, I expect I would be the front runner for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize. But I do know what my idea of justice would be; and it would involve a “safe, proper and judicious transition,” right here in the United States.
For God’s sake, Congress . . . wake up, and stand up, before it’s too late! This is your moment.
Hannah Arendt was a Jewish intellectual in Nazi Germany. Arrested by the Gestapo, she escaped on foot through Czechoslovakia and on to France, and finally to the United States.
Hannah Arendt (1906-75)
She had experienced the early days of the living hell, later to become known as the Holocaust, created by the regime of a monster too evil to be considered a human being. And in 1951, she tried to warn the world that tyranny does not begin when people believe the lies they are told; it begins when people stop believing in anything at all. She wrote:
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced communist, but the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction . . . no longer holds.”
– Hannah Arendt, Lessons for Our Times
She argued that our ability to resist totalitarianism lies in our capacity to think, to question, to listen, to demand evidence . . . because once we stop caring about what is real, we have surrendered our freedom.
Hannah Arendt died before the advent of the internet and social media. How much more urgently her words resonate in today’s cyber world . . . and how much more imperative it is that we heed them.
Variously known as “The Art of Deflection,” “The Blame Game,” or simply “Lying Through Your Teeth,” Plan B is a time-honored device used by tyrants everywhere, from the six-year-old bully on the playground declaring “he hit me first,” to the politician seeking to avoid a scandal, to the barbaric head of state in need of an excuse to start — or prolong — a war.
“They started it!”
And no one does it better than Vladimir Putin. Using his contorted view of Russian/Ukrainian history as an excuse, he sought to satisfy his lust for renewal of the Russian Empire by invading and occupying the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
In 2022, his bizarre claim that the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine were begging to be rescued from oppression by an imaginary “nazi” leadership was the rationale for his full-force attack on the eastern Donbas region, and subsequently the entirety of Ukraine . . . an all-out war of attrition, labeled by him a “special military operation,” that continues to this day.
Ukraine: Being “rescued” by Russia
For four years, as the free world’s leaders have come to Ukraine’s defense while simultaneously seeking to negotiate a solution to the conflict, Putin has stalled, promised, reneged, and deflected time and time again, repeatedly attempting to shift the blame for the carnage to NATO, the EU, and to Ukraine itself.
And as 2025 drew to a close, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered a revised, 20-point peace plan for consideration by the Russian side, Putin came up with yet another ingenious charge to levy against Zelensky: he claimed that a Ukrainian “strike” on his residence at Valdai in the Novgorod Oblast of Russia — which cannot be verified as having happened at all — was an assassination attempt against him personally.
But the Kremlin doesn’t need proof; just putting it out there was enough for Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, who quickly issued a statement reiterating their original immovable, one-sided demands for a cessation of hostilities. And he even had a little help from Donald Trump, who said he had been told about the “attack” by Putin during their last telephone conversation, which had made him very “angry” . . . implying that if Putin said it happened, it must be true.
“Putin told me . . .”
Ukraine — always more than happy to take credit for any real assaults on Russian forces or territory — categorically denies this claim of an attack on Valdai. And George Barros, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said in an exclusive interview:
“There’s no evidence that Ukraine conducted any kind of strike targeting Putin’s residence in Valdai. It’s fairly telling [that] the Kremlin spokesman even rejected the notion that Moscow should provide evidence. Kremlin officials are using the alleged Ukrainian strike in Novgorod Oblast to justify Russia’s continued insistence that both Ukraine and the West capitulate to Russia’s original demands from 2021 and 2022.” [Alex Raufoglu, Kyiv Post, January 1, 2026.] [Bold emphasis is mine.]
Deflect . . . blame . . . lie. They all do it: the autocrats, the plutocrats, the kleptocrats. And Vladimir Putin does it better than most. But, like the mythical boy who cried wolf, no one believes him any longer — no one, that is, with a functioning brain.
I have known people throughout the years who, from as far back as they can remember, have planned their lives with excruciating care, and with great success. They seem always to have known what they wanted in life: education, career, marriage, children, retirement . . . every detail clearly envisioned and plotted. And all along the way, for the most part things have worked out well for them.
My life, on the other hand, seems to have been more reactive than proactive, guided by the forces of chance: making decisions and choices based on current conditions or opportunities as they arose. And, as with most people, some of those choices have proven more fortuitous than others.
Which road to take?
With the transition to yet another new year, I’ve been thinking back on some of my life choices, and how different things might have been if I had gone in some other direction. So — while it’s obviously too late to change things — I went searching for some words of wisdom to satisfy myself that I didn’t screw up too badly. And I found these two opposing, though equally defensible, points of view:
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
. . . and . . .
“I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.” – Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Wow! Two brilliant individuals: one with the confidence to believe he could be the master of his own fate; the other, more adventurous, with the courage to face whatever came his way. But which was more logical?
And then I found a third quote, from an American author of fantasy and science fiction, which struck me as the most reasonable of all:
“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.” – Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Le Guin (1929-2018)
Which, I suppose, is what I’ve always done: worked hard, tried to make rational choices while still having as much fun as possible, and dealt with the ups and downs as they came my way.
And isn’t that what most of us do? The future, after all, is maddeningly unpredictable, and not always ours to control.
All things considered, I suppose I could have done better; but I could also have done a hell of a lot worse.
I’m ready for a little cheer to start the new year, and I’ve found it in a Christmas video from the Feenstra family, back — for the time being, at least — in their home province of Ontario, Canada.
Christmas Morning
After the long, long flight across Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, and a sizable chunk of North America, the family had about ten days to catch up on some sleep, spend time with the grandparents and cousins . . . and prepare for Christmas.
Last year’s holidays were spent in their new home on the farm in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, with new friends, good food, and a focus on the spiritual meaning of Christmas. This year, back for a visit with their extended family, Anneesa’s parents set the theme by introducing the littlest children — and re-introducing the older ones — to a typically Canadian Christmas, filled with the sounds of activities and laughter and the aromas of freshly-baked cookies and a newly-cut tree.
While Arend busied himself with carpentry and electrical work for his in-laws and one of his own brothers, Anneesa took the kids sledding on her favorite childhood snow hill . . .
Grandma and the kids baked dozens of cookies . . .
There was always an ample supply of nourishment . . .
A tree to be brought home and trimmed . . .
Grandma’s miniature Christmas village to be set up . . .
Time out for a visit with Arend’s even larger family, who had commandeered the local school to hold them all . . .
Games to be played . . .
And, at last, gifts to be exchanged on Christmas morning.
Big Brother Ben
Baby Maddie
Warm Clothes
And, of course, toys
*. *. *
But of all the hustle and bustle, one activity — seemingly unique to this family — that stood out for me was a group art project organized by Grandma, who exhibited an unsuspected creative bent. For the two large windows in the living room, she made two huge drawings of a village on heavy-duty rolled paper. She and eldest granddaughter Cora then took the drawings outdoors, where they taped the perfectly-sized sheets, picture side facing indoors, to the exterior of the windows . . .
Grandma’s Artwork
“What are they doing out there?”
The eight children were then given pens containing a sort of liquid white chalk, with which they each traced a section of the drawings onto the inside of the windows . . .
Hard at work
. . . producing these beautiful murals:
The Finished Product
*. *. *
It was at that point in the video — watching eight children ranging in age from 17 to just 3 years old, engaged together in a creative activity, enjoying each other’s company, wrapped in the warmth of a loving family — that I finally came to understand the essence of the Feenstra clan.
Their religious and political beliefs and their chosen lifestyle are vastly different from mine. Their decision to live in Russia is something I will never fully comprehend or agree with. But their devotion to one another, and their ability to find true joy in the smallest of life’s gifts . . . these are the qualities that first drew me to them, that have impelled me to follow their progress over the past two years, and that inspire my admiration and envy.
For, no matter where they live, they have each other; and that bond gives them the strength to face whatever challenges life may bring. And that is indeed something to be thankful for.
So, for the coming year and beyond, I wish Arend, Anneesa, and their entire family good health, prosperity . . . and the ability to differentiate between fact and fiction in their adopted homeland.
Happy 2026, everyone! The “happy” part, of course, is finally seeing an end to what has been a truly horrific twelve months for the world.
As I have spent the last few days reviewing my posts throughout 2025, my already entrenched belief that “if it ain’t bad, it ain’t news” was sadly reinforced. If I tried to touch on every newsworthy item today, this retrospective would be too long for anyone to bother reading — especially for those who may have gone a little overboard on the New Year’s Eve celebrating last night.
So, here are just some of the highlights (or lowlights) — not necessarily in chronological order, since many of them just kept going, and going, and going . . .
“And away we go!”
Russia’s War in Ukraine. Throughout its fourth year, Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” — or more accurately, his war of attrition — against neighboring Ukraine has intensified despite punishing sanctions and diplomatic efforts at a settlement by dozens of the world’s leaders. The longest European conflict since World War II, it seems destined never to end . . . or, at least, not until one side or the other is completely demolished.
Kyiv, Ukraine
*. *. *
The War in Gaza. What began as Israel’s rightful retaliation for the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians has devolved into an ongoing, vengeful assault by Benjamin Netanyahu on the citizens of Gaza. Even the staunchest allies of Israel continue to be sickened by the maelstrom of death and destruction being written off in the name of retribution. Whatever happened to a proportional response?
Gaza
*. *. *
The Emergence of DOGE. A whole new government entity — the so-called Department of Government Efficiency — was quickly created at the beginning of the second Trump term, to be administered by a billionaire with a chainsaw and operated by a slew of prepubescent neophytes with a mandate to cut costs by destroying every iota of system and order essential to the functioning of the very government that was paying their salaries. So now, nothing works as it should.
Cutting Jobs with Glee
*. *. *
The Gilding of the Lily. In Donald Trump’s vision of a new “Golden Age” for America, everything must (a) bear his name, and (b) be slathered in gold, gold leaf, or gold paint. And so we now have the Trump Institute of Peace, the Trump-Kennedy Center, a Trump coin, and plans for a completely useless Trump-class battleship. On the glitter side, there are all the shiny chatchki in the Oval Office and the rest of the White House (what’s left of it), and drawings of a blindingly-gilded, $400 million ballroom. The concept of “less is more” seems to have been lost somewhere between Mar-a-Lago and New York’s Trump Tower.
The Trump Ballroom
*. *. *
ICE on the Streets. No, not a winter weather event. What started as a raging, psychotic assault on America’s immigrant population, heavily armed and often masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began appearing in cities and towns across the country, grabbing and detaining people at will, without due process, based on nothing more than their physical appearance. When innocent citizens protested, Trump sent in reinforcements from the National Guard to cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and even the nation’s capital, to “protect” the ICE agents. Martial law descended on our democracy, despite court orders declaring the administration’s actions blatantly illegal.
How many tough guys does it take . . . ?
*. *. *
The Epstein Papers. There is no need to explain this one; we’ve all read the reports ad nauseam. Yechhh!
No need for introductions; you know who they are.
*. *. *
Natural Disasters. Floods, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, droughts, melting glaciers, disappearing coral reefs, wildfires . . . all of biblical proportions. And in Washington, an official denial of the existence of climate change. Genius.
A Slow Death
*. *. *
Man-made Disasters. Starvation due to cuts in aid; the return of measles and other plagues because of ludicrous untruths about vaccinations; power shortages because someone doesn’t like wind farms . . . to name just a few.
Just one of millions
*. *. *
And then there are the . . .
People We’ve Lost. In light of all of the foregoing, perhaps these are the lucky ones to have left this “mortal coil.” But we are the poorer for their absence:
Pope Francis Actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa Boxer George Foreman Wrestler Hulk Hogan Epstein/Maxwell victim Virginia Giuffre Musician Brian Wilson Musician and TV star Ozzy Osbourne Journalist Bill Moyers Astronaut Jim Lovell Actor Robert Redford Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner Filmmaker David Lynch Actress Dame Joan Plowright Fashion designer Giorgio Armani Conservationist Jane Goodall Actress Diane Keaton Actor Val Kilmer Actress Claudia Cardinale Former Vice President Dick Cheney Playwright Tom Stoppard Architect Frank Gehry Actress Brigitte Bardot Actor Graham Greene Actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner
To them, and to any others I may unintentionally have overlooked . . .
*. *. *
It’s been quite a year, to say the least — and all the more remarkable for the dearth of happy events to offset the bad stuff. I, for one, am glad to see the back of it.
But on the up-side, through all of the difficulties, we’re still able to say:
“Should old acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot In the days of auld lang syne?
“For auld lang syne, my dear For auld lang syne We’ll drink a cup of kindness yet For the sake of auld lang syne.”
Robert Burns (1759-96)
We all know the first verse and the chorus of this old Scottish folk song, based on a poem written by Robert Burns in 1788. But do we ever think about its meaning?
The literal translation of “auld lang syne” is “old long since,” “times long past,” or — in the spirit of the song — “for the sake of old times.” And this year, it seems particularly appropriate to bid farewell — and good riddance! — to the year just gone by. Because it was a stinker.
This year, rather than relying entirely on luck, chance, or the fates, why don’t we all work toward a better one to come . . . even if the only thing we can contribute is our voice in support of peace and justice, and our refusal to bend to opposing, destructive forces.
So — one more time — here’s to a Happy New Year. We’ve earned it.
Yesterday, December 30th, was the 103rd anniversary of the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), then comprised of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation (later divided into the republics of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan). It eventually grew to encompass 15 republics, only disintegrating from its own rot in December of 1991.
And today, December 31st, is the 25th anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s accession to the presidency of the Russian Federation — the day in 1999 that Boris Yeltsin walked off the job. His departure left Putin, then Prime Minister, in charge as interim President until the next scheduled election in March of 2000, when he officially took hold of the reins . . . reins he has tightened again and again until it almost seems as though the Gorbachev-Yeltsin years of glasnost and perestroika (1985-‘99) were nothing more than another Russian fairy tale.
Passing the Baton – December 1999
The five years between the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the formal establishment of the USSR, or Soviet Union, in 1922 were politically chaotic, and represented perhaps the most world-altering events of the early 20th century.
But the arrival of Vladimir Putin at the head of the world’s second most powerful nation, though quieter and less dramatic, signaled changes that would prove as life-changing to the Russian people — and to the rest of the world — as that brutal revolution nearly a century earlier.
Putin had served for 15 years as an officer of the Soviet KGB and was at his then-assigned post in Dresden, East Germany, in August of 1991 when news was received of an attempted coup against Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev. Correctly assessing the possible future ramifications of the event, he quickly left Germany and returned home to Leningrad (soon to be renamed St. Petersburg), joined forces with Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, and began his ascent from jack-of-all-trades to Deputy Mayor.
With Mayor Sobchak – St. Petersburg, C. 1990s
In 1996, when Sobchak lost his bid for reelection, Putin moved to Moscow, where Yeltsin was duly impressed by the younger man’s ability to get things done . . . by any means. Starting out in the Presidential Property Management Department, he rose to Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration in 1997, and First Deputy Head in 1998.
In July of 1998, he returned to his professional roots when he was appointed Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), successor to the KGB. In March of 1999, he added to his duties by becoming Secretary of the Security Council — one of the most influential positions in the Russian government.
And finally, in August of 1999, Yeltsin — then on his last legs due to ill health and long years of alcoholism — appointed Putin his Prime Minister.
Receiving an Award
And that, my friends, is how history is made. It takes just one person with the right skills for the job, in the right place at the right time, to alter the course of events for an entire nation . . . and, by extension, the whole world.
Tragically, sometimes that individual also happens to have a narcissistic personality disorder, the instincts of a cold-blooded killer, and a complete lack of conscience or scruples.
The good news is that nothing — and no one — lasts forever.
The Blog About Everything … and Sometimes Nothing 