Everyone dreads the thought of some low-life hacker getting hold of the sort of personal information that would allow them to assume our identities, steal our money, destroy our credit ratings, and generally create total havoc that might take months or years to straighten out.

But what if someone were to rob an entire nation of its identity by wiping out its history, its culture, and even its language?

Unthinkable? Really?

Well, think again. Because that is precisely what Vladimir Putin is doing to Ukraine, piece by piece, as his forces occupy one region after another and take control of the local governments, the media, and the schools.

In Crimea, it’s been happening since 2014. And now, in the four additional regions claimed by Russia — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhziya — a new directive has been issued by the Russian Education Ministry under which the study of the Ukrainian language is to be removed from the curriculum of all elementary and secondary schools, to be replaced by the study of Russian when the new school year begins on September 1st.

According to the directive, the revision is necessitated by “changes in the geopolitical situation in the world.” [Natalya Nedyelko and Donbas.Realities, RFE/RL, July 7, 2025.]

Right. That would be in Putin’s world.

But it is clear to Ukrainian officials, and to the rest of the free world as well, that it is all part of Putin’s ultimate goal of gaining complete control of Ukraine, which he continues to insist rightfully belongs to Russia.

And if you intend to brainwash an entire nation of people, what better place to start than with the most innocent and vulnerable of its citizens: the children? Hundreds have already been kidnapped and sent to “foster” homes in Russia, or to “re-education camps” within Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. But that is a small percentage of the country’s youths; changing the curriculum in the schools will take care of the rest.

How successful his program will be depends largely upon how long the war lasts, and how it finally ends. And right now, Putin is in it for the long haul, hoping that his country’s massive manpower and firepower will win it for him.

As Josef Stalin is quoted as having said:

“Quantity has a quality all its own.”

Was he right? Well, just think about Nazi Germany . . . Poland . . . Czechoslovakia . . . Hungary . . .

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/11/25

* William Shakespeare, “The Tempest,” Act II, Scene 1.

Once again, my old friend Will Shakespeare comes to my rescue when I find myself groping for exactly the right words.

What brought this particular quotation to mind was a reprint of a news broadcast on March 9, 1954, by the late (and truly great) Edward R. Murrow on his CBS-TV “See It Now” program. At the time, Murrow was commenting on the notorious McCarthy hearings then underway in Congress: Senator Joseph McCarthy’s paranoid, destructive, one-man crusade to root out, by any means, every last communist — real or imagined — in the United States.

As so often happens throughout history, Murrow’s warning of 71 years ago has proven to be as germane in the context of today’s political climate as it was during the “Red Scare” of the 1950s:

“We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.”

And that is precisely what we are doing when we smugly focus on condemning foreign despots while allowing our own freedoms to be stripped away, one after another after another, by a cabal of home-grown autocrats.

The journalists of the last century — Murrow, Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, Brokaw, Woodward and Bernstein — were voices of truth and reason, often our moral compasses. They were fearless, outspoken, and respected.

We need voices like theirs now, more than ever — not only in the media, but in government, in our institutions of learning and culture, in our neighborhoods . . . everywhere.

We need to keep the voices sounding.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/10/25

It sounded really encouraging at first:

“Judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) have ruled that Russia is responsible for several international law violations during its war in Ukraine and the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 that killed 298 passengers and crew.” [RFE/RL, July 9, 2025.]

The ruling was handed down yesterday in a case brought by the Netherlands, which lost 196 of its citizens on the MH17 flight, and by Ukraine, which brought accusations against Russia of murder, torture, rape, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and the kidnapping of Ukrainian children since the invasion on February 24, 2022.

The rulings, comprising some 501 pages, said that Russia’s human rights abuses in Ukraine violated international humanitarian law by the killing and injuring of “thousands of civilians” and “creat[ing] fear and terror,” and that “The use of rape as a weapon of war was an act of extreme atrocity that amounted to torture.” [Id.]

As to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which had been en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, the court found that it had been shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

The ECHR statement said, “Russia is responsible for the downing of flight MH17 and for the deaths of everyone on board,” and added that additional suffering had been caused the victims’ next of kin by Russia’s “denial of involvement and obstruction of investigations.” [Id.]

That all looks good in print. But, other than establishing an official record, what difference will it make?

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s reaction was simply to say that Moscow would ignore the judgment as “we consider it void.” [Id.]

And — while he is morally bankrupt — he is, unfortunately, factually correct. Because, although Russia was previously a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, it ceased to be a member when it was expelled from the Council of Europe following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Further, the ECHR itself has no enforcement authority . . . unlike the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has already issued criminal warrants against Vladimir Putin, who continues to evade arrest simply by not traveling to ICC member countries that would be obligated to take him into custody.

So if enforceable ICC warrants don’t bother Putin, why would he be concerned about a slap on the wrist from the ECHR?

The rulings of the ECHR were, of course, absolutely correct . . . and certainly much appreciated by the people of Ukraine and the Netherlands, and by the families of all of the victims.

But the response by the Kremlin was also true, as a purely practical matter: a tiger without teeth is merely a nuisance, and not to be given a second thought.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/10/25

After 25 years of overseeing elections in Russia, the country’s leading independent election-monitoring group, Golos (“Voice”), is shutting down its operations.

An announcement posted on its website said that it had been forced to dissolve after its co-chair, Grigory Melkonyants, was sentenced in May to five years in prison for allegedly operating activities for an “undesirable” organization — the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO).

Golos — warning that continuing its work would expose members, as well as ordinary citizens seeking legal advice from them, to possible criminal prosecution — said:

“The verdict leaves us no choice. This is the end of a story which, according to investigators and the court, lasted 25 years.” [RFE/RL, July 8, 2025.]

During those years, Golos fought to uphold Russia’s constitutional guarantees of free and fair elections by training volunteer observers and documenting election violations. In doing so, they were able to provide a previously unknown level of transparency during political campaigns — an accomplishment that would be anathema to Putin’s totalitarian regime.

Melkonyants and Golos have denied any affiliation with ENEMO, but to no avail. Golos’ statement added, “The arrest and imprisonment of our friend and colleague had one goal: to make Golos fall silent.” [Id.]

And it succeeded.

*. *. *

But why stop there? On the same day that Golos announced its closure, the Russian government revoked the citizenship of Dmitry Kisiyev, who had been the campaign manager for liberal politician (and Putin opponent) Boris Nadezhdin in the 2024 election.

Kisiyev is from the Crimea region of Ukraine annexed by Russia in 2014, at which time he became a Russian citizen. Now the Federal Security Service (FSB) — successor to the KGB — justifies the withdrawal of his citizenship by accusing him of “actions posing a threat to national security,” in accordance with a law enacted in 2023. [Id.]

Kisiyev writes that “This decision comes precisely when I’m actively planning a State Duma campaign — meeting people, discussing plans, scouting for candidates. It’s clearly a political decision.” [Id.]

Clearly.

So, more than one voice has been silenced in Russia this week. Add these to the two high-profile deaths and a couple of “corruption” convictions of military officers as reported in my post yesterday, and it’s been a successful week of purges on Putin’s domestic front.

And it’s only Wednesday.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/9/25

Artificial Intelligence — from the first time I heard the term mentioned — has scared the crap out of me. And it still does. Like atomic energy, it has its legitimate, even beneficial, uses. But human nature being what it is, there will always be someone who will find a way to use it for some previously unimaginable, nefarious purpose.

Let me explain what brought this about. We’ll start with the stupidity factor, which would include the entire upper echelon of the federal government in Washington.

I’m sure you remember last March, when Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic was, through no action of his own, mistakenly included in a conference call over an unsecured Signal chat app that included Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and — from Moscow, where he had traveled to meet with Vladimir Putin — special envoy Steve Witkoff. They weren’t conferring about dinner plans for the weekend; they were discussing classified military plans involving one or more Middle Eastern countries.

There was, of course, a huge hullabaloo . . . for a while. Then it all got swept under the carpet, and no one lost their job or went to prison. (Personally, I think they should all have been canned; but that’s just my opinion, and since none of those people even know I exist, they’re certainly not going to listen to me.)

So, now we fast-forward to last month, when AI enters the picture. Utilizing the very same, unsecured Signal messaging app, someone — identified by the U.S. State Department as an “unknown actor” — used artificial intelligence to mimic Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s voice in order to contact three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a member of Congress (also not identified).

On July 3rd, a cable was sent by the State Department to “all diplomatic and consular posts,” advising that a false Signal account had been created in mid-June with the display name “marco.rubio@state.gov,” and that:

“The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals, and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal.” [Nadine Yousif, BBC News, July 8, 2025.]

The cable continued:

“There is no direct cyber threat to the department from this campaign, but information shared with a third party could be exposed if targeted individuals are compromised.” [Id.]

According to a Washington Post report, U.S. authorities still don’t know who the “unknown actor” is, but they believe the person’s goal was to manipulate government officials in order to acquire access to information. [Id.]

Well . . . duh!

The Associated Press cited a U.S. official who spoke anonymously, saying that the hoaxes were unsuccessful and “not very sophisticated.” [Id.]

And the State Department assured the world that it is investigating the matter, and that it “continuously takes steps to improve the department’s cybersecurity posture to prevent future incidents.” [Id.]

Well, I certainly feel better, knowing (1) that there is no direct cyber threat from an unknown person; (2) that he or she is supposedly unsophisticated; and (3) that the State Department is working hard to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Just like the March 26th conference call fiasco isn’t going to happen again . . . only it could, because they haven’t stopped using Signal.

And this latest incursion by an as-yet unknown actor could be repeated, because we are living in a world of robots, and drones, and smart-everythings, and artificial intelligence that potentially has a gazillion uses and one day — like a bad sci-fi movie — might outsmart the very people who created it.

So, you’ll understand if I continue to be just a little bit scared.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/9/25

Today’s trip down memory lane is going to require something of a leap, so if you’ll just stay with me, please . . .

*. *. *

This bit of nostalgia was triggered by my virtual visit to the Feenstra farm in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, where the family was celebrating the fourth birthday of one of the youngest members of their brood, Finlay. There were gifts — some lovingly handmade by his older siblings — and one of mom Anneesa’s special cakes, artistically decorated in a rather unusual teal-colored icing. And, of course, much merriment.

But dad Arend took time out from the festivities to attend to some business about the farm, and to discuss a bit of difficulty he had encountered in connection with his driver’s license. First there was the requirement for a special license to be able to drive his tractor on the public roads, which he said had not been a problem in Canada.

And then he explained that, in Russia, in order to drive a manual-shift vehicle, you have to pass your test on a manual-shift vehicle. If you are tested on a vehicle with automatic transmission, your license will be limited to driving only . . . well, you get it. And he thought that was crazy.

But it didn’t sound at all weird to me, because it brought back a memory of my own first driving test, about 100 years ago (or so it seems).

It was 1960. We were living in Washington, D.C., at the time, and I had just aced my driving course, except for repeated cautions from my instructor to keep both hands on the wheel and my elbow off the armrest. It seems I was a bit too relaxed.

But I was ready. And, because at that time D.C. regulations required — just as Russia does now — that you test on a manual transmission in order to be allowed to drive one — that is what I had decided to do, in case it ever became necessary.

I had enlisted a friend, who owned an older car with a stick-shift, to accompany me to the testing site. I had practiced with her car before, so I felt confident . . . until we arrived in the parking lot, where the examiner — an unsmiling, intimidating, drill-sergeant sort — parked our car at the starting point against a curb and ordered me to get in and drive.

And I started to shake. To begin with, that guy was scary. I like to greet new people with a smile and a bit of friendly chit-chat . . . but he wasn’t having any. And as I looked around, I realized that the parking lot was on a slight upgrade, at the top of which was a pedestrian sidewalk and the main street.

Now, although I had done well during my lessons, I had never been entirely comfortable with getting the feel of the clutch on an incline. And here I was, seated next to Attila the Hun, my left foot quaking like an Aspen leaf in autumn . . . headed uphill.

This was not good.

But jumping out of the car and running away was not an option; and bursting into tears wouldn’t have worked on the Hun. So I took a deep breath, pressed down on the clutch with my trembling left foot and the brake with my right, checked the rear-view and side mirrors, stuck my left arm straight out the open window to signal (I said it was an old car), moved my right foot to the accelerator, and . . .

. . . I popped the friggin’ clutch! The car lurched forward toward the sidewalk, where an unfortunate man had chosen that moment to cross my path. He looked up like a deer caught in headlights and took off like the proverbial bat out of hell (sorry about the mixed metaphors), as I — through some inborn instinct I didn’t know I had — hit the brakes, just in time to prevent a catastrophe.

Attila said nothing. I called out “Sorry” to the pedestrian, who I believe was saying a prayer of thanks to the deity of his choice. And then I turned toward the frozen figure seated next to me and said, quite ingenuously, “I flunked, didn’t I?”

Finally regaining his power of speech, he nodded his head and replied, “Yup.” As he got out of the car and hurried away, I believe I heard him mutter something resembling “Merciful God . . .”

As my friend drove us home, I decided it wasn’t really necessary for me to have that unrestricted license. I found another friend — one whose car boasted an automatic transmission — and passed my next test with flying colors. And — despite the subsequent lifting of that requirement — all of my cars since then have been automatics.

*. *. *

As for Arend Feenstra, I have this to say: Don’t knock that regulation; there’s a very good reason for it. If you don’t believe me, just ask the pedestrian I nearly flattened back in 1960.

Everything’s funny in retrospect.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/8/25

It’s not from Ukrainian drones, Chechen terrorists, or aggressive drivers. It’s not even from the unseasonably hot July weather.

Nope . . . it’s another rash of “suicides” and “heart attacks” befalling some of Putin’s trusted minions, both military and civilian — the most recent being Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit, 53, found dead on Monday, July 7th, of a gunshot wound.

The Russian Investigative Committee said his body had been found in his parked car in the elite Odintsovo neighborhood just west of Moscow proper. A gun belonging to him was found next to his body, and officials have said that, while an investigation will be launched, his death initially appears to have been a suicide.

Just hours before the news of his death broke, the Kremlin had announced that Starovoit had been dismissed from his position by President Vladimir Putin. However, no time of death has been revealed, and it is unclear which came first: the firing from his job, or the firing of the gun.

It has also been hinted by the media that his death may have been related to an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption involving embezzlement of state funds allocated for building fortifications in the Kursk region — an area bordering Ukraine that has been partially occupied by Ukrainian forces — where Starovoit served as Governor before becoming Transportation Minister.

The alleged loss of funds has been given as one of the reasons for deficiencies in Russia’s defense of the region, resulting in Ukraine’s incursion in August of 2024. [Associated Press, July 7, 2025.]

And in Putin’s world, where there is a failure, there is always a scapegoat.

*. *. *

Also on Monday — and shortly after Putin’s announcement of Starovoit’s dismissal — Russian news media reported that Andrei Korneichuk, an official with a state railway agency under Starovoit’s ministry, had collapsed during a business meeting and died of an apparent heart attack. [Id.]

Need more? Fine . . . there’s another one. On the previous Friday, July 4th, engineer Andrei Badalov, 62, a vice president of major petroleum company Transneft, died after a “fall” from his upper-floor apartment on Rublevskoye Shosse — the very street on which I lived in 1993.

His death has also been ruled a suicide, and is just one of dozens since 2022 involving prominent businessmen, industry leaders and government officials that have occurred under questionable circumstances and officially been attributed to suicide or heart attacks. [Tim Zadorozhnyy, Kyiv Independent, July 4, 2025.]

*. *. *

Not all of Putin’s victims find release in death; many more are simply prosecuted and locked away. On the same Monday, July 7th, a former deputy chief of the military’s General Staff, Khalil Arslanov, was convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to 17 years in prison. He was one of several members of the military close to former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu — who himself was removed from his post but survived the purge and was given the important role of Secretary of the Russian Security Council. [Associated Press, op.cit.]

However, Shoigu’s former deputy, Timur Ivanov, has also been convicted on charges of embezzlement and money laundering, and sentenced to 13 years in prison. [Id.]

And — again on that very busy Monday — the former first deputy chief of the National Guard, Viktor Strigunov, was arrested and charged with corruption and abuse of office. [Id.]

*. *. *

That’s a lot of bad news from one city over a single weekend — even from Vladimir Putin’s Moscow. Now, if I believed in coincidence . . .

“Seriously?!!”

But I don’t. Not to this extent. And not considering Putin’s record.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/8/25

There are a lot of people right now — most notably, almost the entire upper tier of Washington officialdom — screaming to make America the White, Christian, nationalist country of their most erotic dreams.

One holds up a bible as though offering to autograph it, while simultaneously ordering the police to attack a peaceful gathering of political dissidents nearby . . .

Another . . . having switched religions as he did political parties . . . now belongs to a church that is a member of CREC — the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches — that promotes an all-Christian, patriarchal society in which women are second-class citizens . . .

And the lot of them — from the White House, to the Capitol, to the Department of Justice, to the Supreme Court — are on a rampage to “cleanse” the country of all those who don’t fit into their mold.

Not only do they subvert the Constitution; they — all of those self-styled good Christians — also ignore the portions of the Bible they find inconvenient, such as:

“And the King [that’s God, not Trump] shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” [Matthew 25:40, King James Version.]

And let us not forget Donald Trump’s Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who might prefer something from the Old Testament:

“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.” [Deuteronomy 15:11.]

. . . and . . .

“A righteous man knows the rights of the poor, a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.” [Proverbs 29:7.]

And then there is this (keeping in mind that it is not a multiple-choice question):

*. *. *

So when does the preaching, the Bible-waving, and the flag-hugging cease to be mere hypocrisy, and become heresy?

I am not qualified to answer that question; but perhaps those professed Christians in our government would like to reflect on it for a while.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/7/25

I remember the days before meteorological forecasting became the nearly-precise science that it is today. Though we still haven’t been able to predict Mother Nature’s often capricious behavior, for the most part we now have the benefit of forewarning of everything from light rain to a heavy snow to a full-blown hurricane . . . giving us time to make preparations and take shelter. It would be impossible to calculate the number of lives that are saved each year by these warnings.

Last Friday’s devastating flash floods in Texas have taken 81 lives with 41 more missing, according to a Sunday night report — and nearly a dozen children from a girls’ campground are still unaccounted for. [Cara Tabachnick, CBS News, July 6, 2025.] The horror of the human loss is unimaginable.

There will naturally be questions now as to whether the deluge of rain that caused the flooding could have been predicted in time for campers and others to be moved out of the danger area if the National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA, had not been short-staffed due to funding cuts. And in all likelihood, we will never know the truth. The “official” government reports will deny any blame, and others will sneer at their denials. Politics as usual.

But the loss of all of those lives, and the millions of dollars in property destroyed or damaged, is not political. It is a human tragedy that could reasonably be expected to occur again and again if we are unable efficiently to track the forces of nature. And hurricane season is just beginning . . .

Meanwhile, Washington continues to cut the budgets for departments in charge of vital, life-saving environmental and recovery work . . . because someone doesn’t believe it’s necessary.

At least until the next tornado blows Mar-a-Lago to Oz.

And that same someone has said he would fly to Texas “probably on Friday,” adding that he had wanted to go on Sunday but felt he would have been “in their way.” [Id.]

So what’s wrong with Monday-Thursday?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/7/25

Elon Musk, in an interview with Joe Rogan earlier this year, said that he believed “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy,” and that liberals and progressives are “exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.”

It is a common theme among ultra-conservatives who demonize all charitable works and programs designed to improve humanity’s standard of living as “socialism,” “communism,” or “Marxism.” But that’s just conservative double-speak designed to justify their own White Christian Nationalist (WCN) philosophy.

To begin with, let’s look at some brief, accurate definitions of those terms:

“Socialism, social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another. Furthermore, everything that people produce is in some sense a social product, and everyone who contributes to the production of a good is entitled to a share in it. Society as a whole, therefore, should own or at least control property for the benefit of all its members.” [Richard Dagger and Terence Ball, Britannica.com, updated May 11, 2025.]

“Communism, political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production (e.g., mines, mills, and factories) and the natural resources of a society. Communism is thus a form of socialism — a higher and more advanced form, according to its advocates. Exactly how communism differs from socialism has long been a matter of debate, but the distinction rests largely on the communists’ adherence to the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx.” [Richard Dagger and Terence Ball, Britannica.com, updated May 26, 2025.]

“Marxism, a body of doctrine developed by Karl Marx and, to a lesser extent, by Friedrich Engels in the mid-19th century. It originally consisted of three related ideas: a philosophical anthropology, a theory of history, and an economic and political program. There is also Marxism as it has been understood and practiced by the various socialist movements, particularly before 1914. Then there is Soviet Marxism as worked out by Vladimir Ilich Lenin and modified by Joseph Stalin, which under the name of Marxism-Leninism became the doctrine of the communist parties set up after the Russian Revolution (1917). . . .” [David T. McLellan and Henri Chambre, Britannica.com, updated June 29, 2025.]

Marx is perhaps most popularly known for his slogan: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” — an over-simplified mantra that is often used to try to define socialism and rationalize one’s opposition to welfare programs such as Medicaid, free school lunches, and homeless shelters.

But social welfare programs do not advocate common ownership of property. They are designed to assist people in times of need — when life throws us curve balls we are unable to deflect on our own — until we are once more able to work and care for ourselves . . . or, in the case of the elderly and chronically ill, until we die of natural causes, in reasonable comfort and with dignity.

*. *. *

Many of those same anti-empaths will argue that charitable programs simply promote laziness and abuse of the system. And to some extent, they are correct.

Yes, there will always be those who will find a way to “work” the system to their own selfish advantage. That, unfortunately, is one of the lower instincts of human nature. But should those in legitimate need — the ill or injured, the permanently disabled, the elderly, the orphaned children — be punished for the crimes of a few despicable individuals? Or shouldn’t the people who administer the social programs be held responsible for their proper management in order to detect and prevent such abuse?

It’s not a new story — the “haves” dismissing the “have-nots” as disposable. Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly, embittered recluse, spoke of letting the poor die in order to “decrease the surplus population.” Today’s Scrooges — the likes of Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and their autocratic billionaire cronies — are simply reaffirming the philosophy of old Ebenezer, while trying to pass it off as pragmatic anti-socialism.

But empathy, altruism, and simple kindness have nothing to do with political philosophy. They are what make us human. If we truly wish to decrease the “surplus population,” I say we start by putting the greedy, inhumane, destructive oligarchs out of work, and denying them welfare benefits.

In the words of Senator Mitch McConnell: “They’ll get over it.“

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/6/25