How dreadfully embarrassing for Xi Jinping!

He has somehow managed to keep a straight face while insisting that he is not aiding Vladimir Putin in the furtherance of Russia’s war against Ukraine, despite refusing to speak out against it.

He also ignores the fact that he has continued to boost Russia’s economy — and therefore its military budget — by remaining the largest customer for its oil and gas.

And there’s that little matter of Chinese dual-purpose technology being provided to Russia’s military for use against Ukraine, which Xi shrugs off as being untrue . . . while welcoming officials from Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territories at trade shows where Chinese manufacturers sell heavy equipment to Russian companies operating in those territories. [Id.]

But now he has been caught in yet another lie, and it will be interesting to see how he squirms out of this one . . . or whether he even tries.

Ukraine’s intelligence service announced earlier this month that a 24-year-old Chinese man and his father had been arrested for attempting to obtain classified information about the Neptune missile program and deliver it to Chinese intelligence.

The younger man — who had been expelled from a Ukrainian technical school two years earlier — had befriended a defense worker in an attempt to gain access to the information, which his father would then pass on to the Chinese authorities. [Todd Prince, RFE/RL, July 25, 2025.]

(There is no explanation as to why the pair were still in Ukraine after the student’s expulsion.)

This comes on the heels of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s imposition of sanctions on five Chinese companies for aiding Russia’s war effort.

While it had been hoped by Ukraine and its Western allies that Xi would be able to use his leverage with Putin to assist in ceasefire talks, it has become evident that that’s simply not going to happen, as Xi needs Putin’s war to continue drawing U.S. attention away from China.

His Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, admitted as much earlier this month at a meeting in Brussels with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, when Wang is reported to have said that Beijing could not accept a defeat of Russia in the war because it would leave Washington free to focus on China. [Id.]

China’s protestations of neutrality are no longer believable. The world knows they are buying Russian fuels, selling them military technology, and sending their spies into Ukraine.

In the words of Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee:

“At the very beginning, there was some hope China could be involved in the [peace] process. But now we’ve become more realistic and speak more openly: China supports Russia.”

So you are free, President Xi, to erase the inscrutable smile from your public face; you are fooling no one.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/26/25

They’re not saying how it was done or where he is, of course. But Mikita Losik — brother of imprisoned journalist Ihar Losik — has slipped the tentacles of Belarus’ dictator, Aleksandr Lukashenko, after being sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for “extremist activities.”

With his brother already serving a 15-year sentence on specious charges of “inciting hatred” and “organization of mass riots,” Mikita was working at a machine tool plant in the eastern Belarusian city of Orsha in February 2023, when he observed a train convoy of Russian tanks and air-defense vehicles passing through the city. As he says now:

“We’re told Belarus is a peaceful country, but here we were helping Russia’s war effort in broad daylight. I had to act.” RFE/RL, July 24, 2025.]

And he did just that, taking photos and submitting them to Belaruski Hajun, a popular online monitoring channel that reports on military activities in Belarus. [Id.]

More than two years later, at 6:00 a.m. on April 9, 2025, his dormitory room was invaded by eight masked, armed men who pinned Mikita and his roommate to the ground. Showing him Telegram messages he had long since deleted, they handcuffed him and took him to Vitebsk for questioning and detainment.

They clearly knew who he was, as one of the men asked, “Want to be in the next cell with your brother?” [Id.]

On the basis of an old Telegram subscription and some social media posts containing a “No to war” hashtag, his two-day closed trial resulted in his conviction and sentencing to three years of incarceration in a sort of open prison facility under parole-like control and restrictions. [Id.]

Knowing that the slightest infraction could still land him in a far worse penal colony, and that his relationship to his brother Ihar would surely be held against him, Mikita made his decision to flee.

With the aid of the BySol Foundation, an organization supporting Belarusian political prisoners and dissidents, he was able to engineer his escape.

While in pretrial detention in Vitebsk, Mikita says he met numerous political prisoners, including engineers, students, and others sentenced “just for sending money or posting emojis.” And though he knows that he is still not entirely out of danger, he believes he made the right choices:

“I couldn’t pretend not to see what was happening. I couldn’t stay silent while our land was being used to wage war.” [Id.]

So, while older brother Ihar Losik —who has not been heard from for the past two years — presumably remains in prison, Mikita is at least free . . . though not entirely. He must remain in hiding indefinitely, knowing that he is a wanted man in his own country.

*. *. *

Thus, Mikita Losik will be moved (not removed) from our regular hostage list to a new category . . . one for endangered exiles.

Still, it is a step in the right direction.

Be safe, Mikita.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/26/25

In my many decades of working in the field of corporate transactional law, I survived — and it was a matter of survival — numerous large mergers, acquisitions, and international joint ventures. The negotiations were tortuous and sometimes hostile; and the attention to detail in the preparation of the official documents was mind-numbing. A misplaced comma could blow the whole deal.

Even now, I get that “holy shit!” feeling when I think of the Coke-Pepsi fiasco in China. But that’s another story entirely. But the legal requirements were clear-cut, and everyone involved had been educated and trained to understand and deal with them. We knew what we were doing.

Not any longer.

The merger in today’s headlines involves broadcasting giants Paramount Global and Skydance Media, and the tidy sum of $8 billion. It was, of course, complicated by the requirement for Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval . . . and where the government becomes involved, you encounter a whole new level of complexity.

Forget about the antitrust implications; those are fairly cut-and-dried in comparison to today’s minefield of White House-imposed restrictions on everything from TV programming to museum exhibits to college admissions to what goes on in our bedrooms.

In the instant case, it seems that the censor-in-chief was not happy with a CBS broadcast of an interview with former Vice-President Kamala Harris. So — having nothing better to do, like ending a war in Ukraine or Gaza, or deporting more innocent immigrants — he did what any decent, clear-thinking president would do: he sued parent company Paramount for its alleged editing of the interview to “tip the scales in favour of the Democratic party.” [Paul Glynn, BBC, July 2, 2025.]

And then he instructed the FCC to withhold approval of the Paramount-Skydance merger.

Now, this is where the lawyers for the two merger parties begin drinking heavily, because the actual legal issues become secondary — in fact, nearly irrelevant — in relation to the overriding irrational, unethical, and quite possibly illegal demands of one individual with a big black Sharpie and a limitless supply of executive order forms.

So they swallow their pride (and their enormous fees), ignore the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct (also known as legal ethics), and do what their consciences tell them is clearly wrong: they advise their clients to pay up.

So Paramount pays Donald Trump $16 million dollars, supposedly to be allocated to the building of his gold-plated presidential library, the law suit is dismissed, and a couple of weeks later . . . voila! The FCC approves the merger.

But what about Skydance? What was the price they had to pay for the 28 CBS-owned TV broadcast licenses, other than the $8 billion agreed between the parties? As it turns out, only their integrity.

According to FCC head Brendan Carr — a Trump appointee — Skydance’s ideas to make “significant changes” at CBS were most welcome:

“Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change.” [Christal Hayes, BBC News, July 25, 2025.]

Carr said that Skydance had promised the agency to make a “commitment to unbiased journalism,” and to install an ombudsman to evaluate complaints of bias. They also agreed . . . are you ready for this? . . . to end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. [Id.] [Bold emphasis is mine.]

*. *. *

The FCC voted 2-1 to approve the merger. But one commissioner, Democrat Anna Gomez, had the courage to dissent. In her words:

“After months of cowardly capitulation to this administration, Paramount finally got what it wanted. Unfortunately, it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price for its actions.” [Id.]

Brava, Ms. Gomez! Her conscience is clear; I only hope her curriculum vitae is up-to-date.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/25/25

The story accompanying this photo talks about the worsening traffic conditions in the Washington, D.C. area, which now reportedly boasts the longest daily commutes in the United States.

But, as my D.C. and Maryland friends will attest, Interstate 695, shown above, is actually Baltimore’s Beltway — not Washington’s, which is I-95 and I-495, as seen below.

(Please don’t ask why it has different designations for the western arc and the eastern arc, or why some stretches share both numbers; I’ve never seen the sense of it, and I lived most of my life there.)

So, is the I-695 photo just a case of human error, or the result of another AI screw-up? It’s impossible to tell the difference these days; but either way, it’s a good example of why we shouldn’t take everything we see online as gospel.

In all fairness, though, the first picture was taken from a BBC report, so perhaps we should simply forgive our friends across the Pond for not being familiar with our highway system. After all, I wouldn’t have a clue as to the quickest route from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle.

“I should take the M4? Are you sure?”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/25/25

This is not a hypothetical question: the Russian government is actually working on it. YouTube has become so popular in Russia, with millions of viewers across the country, that the government considers it a major threat unless it can control its content. They have tried to convince parent company Google to locate its servers inside Russia in order to make them accessible to Russian regulators, but without success. And so far, all they’ve managed to do is slow the service down to “unbearable” speeds. [Mike Eckel, RFE/RL, July 25, 2025.]

According to market research from Mediascope, 95.9 million Russians — adults and teenagers — visited YouTube each month during the last half of 2024. As regulators began slowing the service, the numbers dropped somewhat in the first half of 2025.

At least five potential challengers have joined the Russian Internet (RuNet) in the hope of drawing viewers away from YouTube. The most viable competitor thus far is Russia’s equivalent to Facebook, known as VK Video (VK is short for VKontakte, or “In Contact”) — a service created by Pavel Durov, who fled Russia when the government began pressuring him to release confidential information on his customers, and later co-founded the highly successful Telegram messaging service.

According to Philipp Dietrich, an expert on Russia’s Internet at the German Council on Foreign Relations:

“I think the only real big alternative is VK Video. I think that’s the main player. They have the money. They’re government-backed. They’re going to go all-in here. They have the servers, the infrastructure, they have good software, they have good engineers, if money doesn’t get into corruption, if it actually goes where it’s supposed to go, VK is going to be a success.” [Id.]

It’s no secret that Vladimir Putin has turned Russia back into an autocratic state . . . or that one of the first agenda items of an autocracy is control of the media. So none of this comes as a surprise.

But I’m unable to see how blocking YouTube would square with the government’s promotion of the Canadian Feenstra family, now living on their large farm in the Nizhny Novgorod region and broadcasting almost daily on YouTube to advertise the idyllic life to be found in Russia for other conservative families from Canada, the U.S., and elsewhere.

The Feenstras — Arend, Anneesa, and their eight children — have become the poster children for Putin’s attempts to counteract the disturbing decrease in the country’s population through his twin programs of welcoming large, conservative families from abroad, and encouraging young Russians to . . . well, to put it bluntly . . . procreate.

For the Russian families, there are financial incentives; and for emigre families, there is land, accessibility to farming and building materials and equipment, and the promise of protection from the “wokeness” of the West for their children.

And for the Feenstras, instant fame.

They are an exceptional family — smart, hard-working, devoted to one another, and personable on-camera. As my readers know, I have been following their progress through their YouTube broadcasts since their arrival in Russia at the beginning of 2024. And I’m very worried that, if YouTube is blocked, I will lose them.

But more importantly, what will happen to them if they no longer have access to worldwide social media, and are limited to Russian services? Will they lose their propaganda value to the state, and some of their privileges as well? Or will the government find some work-around to allow them to keep broadcasting?

We’ll have to wait for the answers to those questions. In the meantime, of course, I’m sticking with the Feenstras and their daily adventures in beautiful, woke-free Nizhny Novgorod.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/25/25

To the surprise of absolutely no one, yesterday’s meeting in Istanbul between the Russian delegation — led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky — and the Ukrainian team — headed by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov — concluded after barely an hour with an agreement to swap 1,200 prisoners of war and for Russia to return the bodies of 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

But no movement toward a ceasefire.

And just hours later, the two countries once again exchanged drone strikes, killing two and injuring another eleven people in the Russian resort city of Sochi, with three killed in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and several injured in Cherkasy and Zaporizhzhia.

In addition, a Russian missile attack struck — not a military facility, as they consistently claim to be targeting — but Odesa’s 200-year-old Pryvoz Market: an historic landmark, and one of the two most popular markets in Odesa.

Ahead of the meeting at Istanbul, Ukraine’s Umerov said that Kyiv’s priority was to organize a meeting between Presidents Zelensky and Putin before the end of August; while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said that they did “. . . not expect a breakthrough. A breakthrough is hardly possible.” [Laura Gozzi, BBC News, July 24, 2025.]

Peskov said further:

“They [Ukraine] are trying to put the cart slightly ahead of the horse,” adding that there was a great deal of work yet to be done before such a meeting could take place. [Id.]

Once again, Putin has made it quite clear that he has no intention of entering into peace negotiations in the foreseeable future. So I’ll say it one more time, in the hope that someone in Washington is listening:

It’s way past time to quit making empty threats, and put a stop to Russia’s war machine, once and for all. What in hell are we waiting for?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/24/25

Why would the man who, for the past six years, has led Ukraine steadily toward membership in the EU and NATO; worked tirelessly to solidify his country’s relations with the West; and, for three and a half grueling years, inspired his people in their fight against Russia’s brutal invasion . . . why would he suddenly sign into law a bill granting control of the country’s two independent anti-corruption agencies to the Prosecutor General — an appointee of the President?

That is the question on everyone’s mind this week, since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did exactly that on Tuesday, after the bill received the backing of 263 out of 324 members of Parliament.

And it took less than a day for the people in Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Lviv and Sumy — despite the constant threat of Russian drone and missile attacks — to take to the streets in protest.

One protester in Dnipro, a city not far from the southeastern front said:

“We had two relatively independent institutions that at least created the appearance — or even the reality — of checks and balances. If we dismantle them, we’ll slide into a fully controlled state. I wouldn’t want to live in a country like that.” [Steve Gutterman, RFE/RL, July 23, 2025.]

And a war veteran attending the protest in Kyiv on July 22nd said:

“In essence, Ukraine is being dragged 10 years back in terms of the fight against corruption. By stripping NABU of its autonomy, they are gradually dismantling everything that’s been built up over the years. I’m in shock, my friends are in shock.” [Id.]

*. *. *

In a nightly address on July 22nd, Zelensky had defended the draft legislation, saying that it would improve anti-graft efforts and remove “Russian influence.” But later on July 23rd, he said he would soon propose another bill, which would still guard against Russian interference but would also provide for “the independence of anti-corruption institutions.” [Steve Gutterman, RFE/RL, July 23, 2025.]

He did not specify at that time whether the new bill would supersede the one he had signed the day before.

Previous Ukrainian administrations had been known for rampant corruption, though there has been some improvement since the two agencies — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) — were created in 2014 as a condition set by the EC and IMF in order to strengthen ties between Ukraine and the West.

Asked by the EC for “explanations,” Zelensky argued that steps had to be taken to remedy NABU’s and SAP’s record of allowing criminal proceedings to stagnate for years, and that they needed to be “cleansed from Russian influence.” [Laura Gozzi and Charlotte Gallagher, BBC, July 23, 2025.]

A spokesman for EC President Ursula Von der Leyen reiterated that respect for the rule of law and the fight against corruption were “core elements” of EU membership, and that Ukraine — as a candidate country since 2022 — was expected to maintain those standards.

“There cannot be a compromise,” the spokesman added. [Id.]

Aside from the obvious domestic implications, there is now an overwhelming concern as to the effect this action may have on Western support of Ukraine against Russia’s continuing onslaught.

But at least one person is happy today: Vladimir Putin, who would see this as a golden opportunity to drive a wedge between Ukraine and its allies, and to advance his demand that an immediate presidential election be held to “legitimize” or replace Zelensky.

After all that the people of Ukraine have been through, and all that the West has done to help them, we can only hope that President Zelensky is able to make this right.

Because anything less would be an unspeakable tragedy.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/24/25

Happy birthday, Walter . . . you old curmudgeon.

He would have been 110 years old today; and I can’t even begin to imagine how cantankerous he would have become by now. But I’d give anything to have him back here, fixing the things that have gone wrong with the world since he left it in 1989.

I didn’t know him in his earlier years, of course — the learning period at the University of Virginia and Yale University Law School; the years of his service in the OSS during World War II; his time in the State Department where he was the chief legal draftsman of both the Marshall Plan and the NATO Treaty; or when he worked with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger to reopen U.S. relations with China.

What I remember are those ten years of working with him — from 1979 to 1989 — when he was senior partner of the Washington-based international law firm of Surrey & Morse, advising his corporate clients on the fine art of doing business in numerous countries throughout the world.

I remember the calls from the State Department seeking his advice on a variety of delicate issues.

I remember his unsolicited advice to the Kremlin in 1983, via a contact in the Soviet Embassy in Washington, when Korean Airlines Flight 007 was shot down by Soviet fighter jets, with the newest member of our firm onboard.

I recall the meetings in our offices with Soviet officials, delegations from Beijing, and representatives of the widow of the last Shah of Iran.

And how could I ever forget our colossal fights when he was in one of his infrequent, but notorious, bad moods — usually because he wasn’t feeling well but refused to stay at home?

But most of all I remember his wicked sense of humor, his generosity, and his limitless capacity for drawing people to him and caring for them as though they were his own family . . . myself included.

For his sake, I’m glad he’s not around to see what has happened to our country — in fact, to the entire world — in his absence. But selfishly, how I wish he were here . . . running me ragged with his boundless energy and enthusiasm; sitting me down to talk things out when he sensed that I had a personal problem; and affectionately calling me “Bitch” on those rare occasions when I might verbally get the better of him.

And I remember, with renewed pain, the feeling that part of me had also died when I got the call from his wife that dreadful day in January of ‘89.

So, happy 110th, Walter. Thanks for giving me a decade of the most interesting, most frustrating, most educational, most exhausting, and most fun-filled years of my life.

I miss you every day.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/24/25

The new rule of order in the U.S.. House of Representatives:

When there is reason to anticipate a vote against White House interests, call an early recess and send everyone home for a month.

It may not be written in any rule book, but it is what House Speaker Mike Johnson did yesterday in order to forestall a vote on any measures related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, when it seemed that members of his own Republican party might cross party lines to vote for transparency in matters that could prove troublesome (or worse) to Donald Trump and/or other former friends of Epstein.

Now Trump has until September to work his “magic” (translation: “bullying”) on any members who might have dared do what they were elected to do, i.e., vote their consciences.

And all the others who suspect they may be on Epstein’s notorious list — if such a list does indeed exist — now have an extra month to try to cover their tracks, just in case.

But this tactic is neither new nor surprising; it’s the way our so-called democratic government operates now. And it’s our own fault; we elected these self-serving, weak-kneed, sycophantic morons.

As Karl Marx said:

“The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/23/25

In the Soviet Union, they were called the Young Pioneers — an organization established by Vladimir Lenin in 1922 for the political indoctrination of children ages 9 to 14. And for the most vulnerable — the littlest Russians aged 9 and under — there was the Little Octobrist group.

Today, Vladimir Putin has once more politicized the school curriculum throughout Russia as he turns his country back to the authoritarian form of government he has so sorely missed since the breakup of the Soviet Union, which he called the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.

But he has also realized, since his invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago and his occupation of approximately 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory, that he has an enormous new source of young minds to mold to his liking: the thousands of children living in the occupied areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

In nursery schools, the children are taught to salute the Russian flag; to honor the black-and-orange military banner signifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine; and to jump up and down while singing the contemporary song, “I am Russian.” [Vitaly Shevchenko, BBC Monitoring, July 20, 2025.]

And the powerful, Kremlin-backed Yunarmia (Youth Army) organization, which operates across Russia and now has branches in occupied areas of Ukraine, accepts members as young as eight years old. The head of Yunarmia’s branch in the Zaporizhzhia region, Fidail Bikbulatov, explains:

“We’re providing children with some basic skills which they’ll find useful should they decide to join military service.” [Id.]

Right . . . as though they’ll have a choice.

And there are the thousands of Ukrainian children who have been taken on “tours” of Russia, and never returned. They have been kidnapped, placed with foster families or in “reeducation camps.” Despite demands from Ukraine and from international human rights organizations, the children remain in Russian custody. (An estimated 19,500 children have been deported to Russia since the 2022 invasion, of whom only around 1,400 have been returned to Ukraine.) [Una Cilic, Maryana Sych and Kateryna Farbar, RFE/RL, July 21, 2025.]

Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found Russia guilty of human rights violations including the forced deportation of children.

And a report by the global think tank Globsec talks of Moscow’s intention to “steal” Ukraine’s future:

“Russia’s weaponization of population displacement and the deportation of children represents one of the most deliberate and devastating assaults on a civilian population in modern European history. Far from being unintended consequences of war, these are core components of the Kremlin’s hybrid warfare strategy, designed to weaken Ukraine’s demographic resilience in what has become a protracted conflict.” [Id.]

*. *. *

Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets represents his government in its efforts to bring back civilians and military personnel from Russia, and says that Russia has held back information regarding Ukrainian children:

“From our perspective, we clearly see the main goal of deporting Ukrainian children: to use them as the next generation of Russian soldiers. Their documents are changed, all of them, including birth certificates and education records. They are forced to speak only Russian and to identify themselves as Russian.” [Id.]

Lubinets added that Russian officials are reluctant to return the children “because they fully understand that every returned child is a potential witness. We must acknowledge that Russian propaganda works on them every single day.” [Id.]

Yet Vladimir Putin would have us believe that he wants to end the war in Ukraine; that Ukraine is the aggressor; and that he has no further designs on the rest of Ukraine . . . or any other Eastern European territory.

And if you buy that story, then let me tell you about the Tooth Fairy.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/23/25