This is one of those times.

Last week, I commented on the current deportation measures being taken by the Trump administration, and specifically focused on the following:

“Additionally, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem anounced this week that the administration will use funds from the gutted Federal Emergency Management Administration [FEMA] to spend on an ‘alligator Alcatraz’ detention center on a remote Everglades airfield.” [William Vaillancourt, Daily Beast, June 26, 2025.]

That one paragraph opened my mind to a lot of questions, one of which — written half in jest, but apparently originating from some deep, dark instinct — was:

“ . . . what are we talking about: solid structures, or some sort of ‘tent city’?”

I particularly noted the location — an airfield in the middle of Florida’s Everglades swampland — and the notorious heat and humidity of the summer season in that part of the country.

As I said, my mention of a “tent city” was an offhand thought . . . not one that I actually considered a serious likelihood. After all, who could be so cruel . . . ?

But today, I found out that, indeed, someone could . . . because that is exactly what is being created in Florida. And Donald Trump has personally toured his newest big beautiful brainchild and given it his gold-plated stamp of approval.

While not the sort of “tent city” — known as “Resurrection City” — that was created on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 1968 as part of the Poor People’s Campaign initiated by Martin Luther King, Jr., it is nonetheless reminiscent of the Nazi prisoner-of-war camps of World War II . . . just newer and shinier (for now).

“Alligator Alcatraz,” as it has come to be known, is intended to house 3,000 migrants, whom Trump described as the most “menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.” [Bernd Debusmann, Jr. and Ana Faguy, BBC News, July 1, 2025.]

While visiting a medical facility and one air-conditioned housing tent containing cage-like compartments enclosed by chain-link fence, Trump commented:

“We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is, really, deportation,” adding that he “wouldn’t want to run through the Everglades for long” and that anyone attempting to do so would be met by “a lot of cops in the form of alligators.” [Id.]

He forgot to mention the crocodiles, pythons, and a carnivorous subspecies of cougar known as the Florida panther.

The facility will cost an estimated $450 million a year to operate, and it is not the only one being planned. Another is slated to be opened near Jacksonville, Florida, and Trump has indicated that the administration is already working with the governments of several Republican-run states, including Louisiana, to find other “suitable” locations. I assume the Louisiana bayous would be considered suitable for his purposes.

I wonder if he’s also considering Death Valley in the Mojave Desert . . . although California is a blue (Democrat) state.

Environmentalists in Florida have expressed serious concerns about the impact of Alligator Alcatraz on their efforts to restore parts of the Everglades, and a number of endangered species of animals in the region. But none of that seems to faze Trump in his hysterical frenzy to rid the country of immigrants — only a very small percentage of whom can truthfully be considered “the most vicious people on the planet.”

And when — or if — Trump at last fulfills his erotic dream of deporting the last immigrant, what will become of these very expensive camps? Will they be left to rot, further damaging the surrounding environment? Or does he have some other, more nefarious purpose in mind for them?

Whatever the answer, the first outpost in his proposed chain of prison camps is already a reality. Until now, I hadn’t realized that having our very own series of stalags (Nazi POW camps) was part of the dream of “making America great again.”

Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/1/25

On July 1, 1947, an article entitled “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” was published in the July edition of Foreign Affairs. Its author was identified only as “Mr. X” . . . in reality, his name was George F. Kennan.

Kennan, an historian and diplomat, had been serving as the U.S. charge d’affaires in post-war Moscow in February 1946, when he wrote what became famously known as his “long telegram” to the Department of State. That telegram, defining his analysis of the Russian government’s expansionist goals, later became the basis of the published article. The “Mr. X” nom de plume was used to avoid any inference that his opinion might constitute official U.S. government policy.

The Soviet Union had been our ally in World War II; without their involvement, that conflagration might have dragged on indefinitely, and ended quite differently. But once Hitler was defeated, Josef Stalin reverted to type, and a new battle began: the battle of the West against Soviet communism . . . memorably inspiring Winston Churchill’s famous “iron curtain” speech on March 5, 1946.

Churchill and Kennan were obviously in sync in their analyses of Stalin’s aims. What Kennan wrote to the State Department in February of that year — and later published in Foreign Affairs the following year — is notable for its prescience, and deserves our attention today.

Kennan explained that the Soviet leaders were determined to spread their communist doctrine throughout the world, but were also extremely patient and pragmatic in pursuing their goals. He said that, in the “face of superior force,” the Russians would retreat and wait for a more propitious moment. But the West should not be lulled into complacency, as Soviet foreign policy “is a fluid stream which moves constantly, wherever it is permitted to move, toward a given goal.” [“This Day in History,” History.com, July 1, 2025.]

He advised the following in regard to U.S. foreign policy:

“The main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” [Id.]

Just as Churchill’s “iron curtain” found its way into the lexicon of the Cold War, so did Kennan’s “containment.” President Harry S. Truman agreed, and in the years that followed, the policy of containment became a principal focus of the U.S. and allied governments, leading to the establishment of NATO in 1949.

*. *. *

Those were years when the world was blessed with a generation of true statesmen . . . knowledgeable, dedicated people who recalled the lessons of history, understood the delicate balancing act of diplomacy, and genuinely believed in the superiority of a democratic form of government. They were the men and women who formed U.S. and European policy, propelling the Western allies forward through the second half of the 20th century to a prosperity never before known or dreamt of.

They were not oligarchs . . . not self-anointed Neros . . . not would-be emperors ruling over an impoverished, enslaved populace while themselves reveling in lives of corruption and debauchery.

The lessons of 1946 are as pertinent today as they were then. But where are the statesmen qualified to understand and deal with Vladimir Putin as Truman and Churchill dealt with Josef Stalin?

I believe they’re out there: the historians, the scholars, the political scientists, the educators. But perhaps they’re simply too smart to be lured into the abhorrent world of politics. If so, then we are truly doomed to become the victims of our own inaction.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/1/25

The memories I have of my one visit to Hungary, in the fall of 1990, are all positive: the architectural wonders of Budapest, the boat trip along the beautiful Duna (Danube) River to the artists’ village of Szentendre, the lights on the Lanchid (Chain Bridge) that were turned off precisely at midnight each night, a private tour of the magnificent Parliament building, the outstanding cuisine, the beautiful and friendly people, and so much more, all combined to make the week a magical one.

We — a small group from our Washington law firm — were there as co-sponsors of a conference on doing business in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Less than a year earlier — on November 9, 1989 — the Berlin Wall had been breached, and one by one, the satellite nations of the Soviet Bloc were finding their way toward independence and democracy. We were there to help.

The spirit of the Hungarian people seemed to permeate the very air. Their 1956 uprising had been quashed by the Soviet forces; but this time was different. This time they would remain free.

And so they have, for 35 years. But since the emergence of Viktor Orban on the political scene, things have begun to change. Head of the Russia-friendly, right-wing Fidesz Party since 2003, and Prime Minister of Hungary since 2010, he has instituted an authoritarian rule that is disturbingly reminiscent of the “bad old days.”

One of his recent laws prohibits the “exposure of young people to non-heterosexual lifestyles” . . . a euphemistic way of placing a jackbooted foot on the neck of the LGBTQ community of Hungary. Despite popular protests, as well as condemnation from the EU and human rights groups, he forbade a march scheduled for June 28th.

But the people came anyway. Budapest’s Mayor, Gergely Karacsony — an opponent of Orban — declared it a municipal event, thus exempting it from the requirement for police approval. The organizer of the Pride parade, Viktoria Radvanyi, estimated the crowd size at 180,000 to 200,000 people, despite a record-setting heat wave. To avoid confrontations with an anticipated counter-demonstration by right-wing groups, the parade route was changed, and the march was on. [RFE/RL, June 28, 2025.]

Radvanyi said, “We’re not just standing up for ourselves … If this law isn’t overturned, Eastern Europe could face a wave of similar measures.” [Id.]

And one of the marchers told RFE/RL, “We need to stay together. In Europe, we see fascism … The Orban ban is not legal.” [Id.]

Peter Magyar is a leading oppositionist whose popularity makes him a major threat to Orban in the 2026 parliamentary elections. He wrote of the event on social media:

“I call on our police officers to protect all Hungarian citizens.

“The goal of the failed leadership is to turn Hungarians against Hungarians, to create fear and divide us.

“I ask everyone not to give in to any provocation. If anyone is injured or hurt in Budapest today, Viktor Orban alone will be responsible.“ [Id.]

According to Orban, participants in the march would be subject to “legal consequences” — most likely a fine of up to $580 — while organizers could be imprisoned for a year. It was also suggested that authorities might use facial recognition technology to identify the individuals.

But Mayor Karacsony said that there would be no reprisals. He insisted that the job of the police “is a serious one: to ensure the safety of Hungarian and European citizens attending the event” . . . to which the Hungarian Justice Minister, Bence Tuzso, responded with a threat of a one-year prison term for Karacsony’s part in organizing the event.

And so it goes in Hungary. As in much of the world today, threats of a resurgence of authoritarianism — even fascism — are on the rise. But the spirit that I saw in 1990 Hungary lives on.

And we might do well to take a lesson from their experience.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/1/25

On June 30, 2020, the world was in the throes of a pandemic — a virus known as COVID — that would forever alter the lives of millions of people.

And on that same day, I was in the middle of a move that would irreversibly reshape the remainder of my life. That was the day the last of my worldly belongings — what had not already been sold, donated, or trashed — were loaded into a moving truck and a rented van and driven from my apartment in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., to a house I had never seen 578 miles away in the southern state of Georgia.

It was the day I finally admitted to myself that I was getting old.

Did I say “getting”??!!! Hell, I was old. Just three years shy of the age at which both my mother and my older sister had died, I was counting up the encroaching disabilities that seemed to pop up out of nowhere, and counting down the days to my inevitable departure from this earthly realm.

I had been forced into retirement three years sooner than intended. My retirement fund wouldn’t last forever. Most of my friends had predeceased me, so my social life was . . . to put it kindly . . . limited. So when my son suggested that I come to live with him and his family, it felt as though I had been rescued from an uncertain, but certainly unappetizing, fate.

I won’t go into the lurid details of the preparations for the move; suffice it to say, it was horrible. But once the apartment had been emptied, my son (who had driven up from Georgia to fetch me and my stuff) and I spent the night at a nearby Hilton, where there was no food service — actually, no service of any kind — due to COVID restrictions. In fact, there were no other visible signs of life, other than one clerk at the front desk. A nearby grocery store was open, and our dinner consisted of pre-made salads and sandwiches, some of which we carefully conserved for the next morning’s breakfast. And then it was time to hit the road.

The drive down was long — somewhere between eight and nine hours — but smooth, due to COVID’s having induced people to stay home more and travel less. However, the ride from the I-95 exit to the town in which I would actually be living seemed endless. I had no idea we would be so far out in the middle of nowhere.

And hey! Wait a minute! Was that a cotton field??!!!

It was. And it was followed by a lot of Spanish moss hanging from all sorts of oak trees; a small town straight out of “Deliverance,” with a City Hall that looked more like a doll house, and a Dollar Store around every bend in the road; a slew of churches of every known Christian denomination; and more cotton fields and Spanish moss.

Finally — like Brigadoon springing magically from the mists of the Scottish highlands — there appeared a neighborhood of lovely, big houses. And we were home.

As I was welcomed into my new abode by my daughter-in-law, teenaged step-granddaughter, an extremely friendly dog named Dixie, and a cat who . . . well, who still ignores me five years later . . . my first thought was, “Oh well, it will probably only be for about three years, and then I’ll be dead.”

Not that there was actually anything wrong. The house was beautiful, and my family are terrific people. It just wasn’t home, despite their assurances; and I knew it never would be. Because I’m a city girl.

Of course I miss my friends . . . the ones who are left. I miss my daughter being just an hour and a half away, and my cousins a mere ten minutes up the road. But I also miss the things that a lot of people find most annoying about cities.

It’s too quiet here. I lie awake at night, listening for the sounds of traffic — honking horns, squealing brakes, drivers shouting obscenities at one another — that aren’t there.

I miss the fire engines screaming past on their way from the nearby volunteer fire station to someone’s home up the street, and the police cars giving chase to the perpetrator of the latest area crime.

I even miss the noisy neighbors in my big, impersonal apartment building . . . people from every part of the world, speaking in a cacophony of unintelligible languages. And the enticing smell of their dinners wafting through the halls.

I long for the accessibility of everything: the small shopping centers within walking distance, with their supermarkets, pharmacies, banks, book stores, boutiques, and restaurants of every ethnicity . . .

. . . my old, familiar doctors, dentist, optician, hairdresser . . .

. . . the theaters — Kennedy Center, National, Signature, Wolf Trap . . .

. . . huge shopping malls, with the crowds of frantic people racing from store to store, or to the food court, or the multiplex movie theater redolent of popcorn . . .

. . . the many museums of the Smithsonian, the National Art Gallery, the Holocaust Museum, the National Zoo . . .

. . . the beauty of Washington itself, with its eternal reminders of our noble history: the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the Washington Monument, the U.S. Capitol, the White House . . .

. . . and on and on and on.

I’m already two years past my “sell by” date, and I’m still here. My days are mostly quiet, while everyone else is at work or school. The people I’ve met are lovely folks, gracious and kind; but they’re not my old friends . . . we have no history together. And as a Jewish, Yankee, liberal-leaning Democrat, conversation is limited to the mundane.

Oh . . . did I mention that I hate the climate?

But enough grumbling. Considering the state of much of the world today, I’m doing all right. As long as my words don’t fail me, the internet continues to work, and the wine holds out, I’ll be here . . . communicating in the way I know best, and calculating the number of days by which I have already exceeded the life spans of my mother and sister.

Happy anniversary to me.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/30/25

Anyone who follows the daily news could have come to the same conclusion that I did, less than 24 hours ago, when I wrote (again) that Vladimir Putin no more wants peace in Ukraine than he would want a hot poker shoved up his . . . well, you know.

After proclaiming that he was ready for another negotiation, and that he would soon be cutting Russia’s military budget, he launched the biggest air strike on Ukraine since the beginning of the war more than three years ago.

Casualties and damage were reported from at least six regions across the country, including Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk in the west, Mykolayiv in the south, Zaporizhzhya in the southeast, and Poltava in central Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on social media:

“Almost all night long, air raid alerts sounded across Ukraine — 477 drones were in our skies, most of them Russian-Iranian Shaheds, along with 60 missiles of various types. A residential building in Smila was also hit, and a child was injured.” [RFE/RL, June 29, 2025.]

Zelensky accused Russia of “targeting everything that sustains life,” and reiterated his thanks and pleas to the West for continuing support:

“Ukraine needs to strengthen its air defense — the thing that best protects lives. These are American systems, which we are ready to buy. We count on leadership, political will, and the support of the United States, Europe, and all our partners.” [Id.]

The massive attack prompted Poland and allied countries to scramble aircraft to protect Polish airspace.

But Putin says he wants peace.

*. *. *

Meanwhile, in the Dnipropetrovsk region — close to the Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia — families who had already been displaced once are being forced to flee again as Russian forces push closer.

Six-year-old Damir’s family left Pokrovsk a year ago, seeking shelter in Dnipropetrovsk. Now his grandmother says, “I don’t even know if my apartment is still intact. I know that the ones nearby are completely burned out. The neighborhood where my children lived has been razed to the ground.” [Oleksiy Prodayvoda and Mykyta Peretiatko, RFE/RL’s Current Time, June 30, 2025.]

As Damir begins to cry, his grandfather tries to console him: “Why are you crying? Your mom is going with you, your sisters are going, your brother is going … You’ll keep them all on their toes over there.” [Id.]

It doesn’t appear to work.

Damir’s teenage sister Amelia says, “The war is getting closer and closer. You can already hear gunfire and explosions. We want to be far away from all that.” [Id.]

So the women and children are being evacuated. But grandfather Mykola is staying. “I feel sorry for my grandkids and children, not for myself. I’ll just grab my pitchfork and guard this place,” he jokes. [Id.]

But Putin says he wants peace.

And he expects the world to believe him.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/30/25

Isn’t that how all fairy tales begin? Even the Russian-language version of “The Wizard of Oz” — which I read as a study exercise many years ago — began that way. (In case you’re wondering, it’s titled “Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda”: “The Magician of the Emerald City.”)

In fact, Russia is noted for its wealth of magical fairy tales. My favorite happens to be “The Firebird.” But not all Russian fairy tales are ancient; new ones are being written every day. And the modern ones are every bit as unbelievable and diabolical as those from olden times.

The principal difference between the old and the new is that, instead of the fictitious sweet-talking, child-eating witch known as Baba Yaga, we have the very real warlock named Vladimir Putin (“Dyed Vlad”?).** And he weaves his magic spells with words meant to deceive his listeners, lulling them into a sense of security, hope, and — above all — absolute loyalty to the master storyteller.

(Hmm . . . sound familiar?)

** NOTE: The Russian word “Baba” means “grandmother”; “Dyed” (rhymes with “red”), as you might expect, is “grandfather.”

Anyway, this week’s installment of “Tales From the Kremlin” involves the usual hero — Putin himself — and his Special Military Operation in Ukraine. It’s a twisted story, and is being spun in a series of statements from various sources, so it gets a bit confusing at times. But that’s nothing new.

> To begin with, the Moscow Times reports on June 27th that “Russia and Ukraine [are] nowhere close on peace terms,” their respective demands for peace terms being still “absolutely contradictory.” [AFP, June 27, 2025.]

> On the same day — after the NATO summit meeting had produced an agreement among the member nations to incrementally increase their military spending to 5% of GDP — Putin tells a press conference in Minsk, Belarus, that that is none of Russia’s business, and says:

“But now here is the most important thing. We are planning to reduce defence [sic] spending. For us, next year and the year after, over the next three-year period, we are planning for this.” Acknowledging that nothing has yet been finalized by the Ministries of Defense, Finance and Economy, he adds, “but overall, everyone is thinking in this direction. And Europe is thinking about how to increase its spending, on the contrary. So who is preparing for some kind of aggressive actions? Us or them?” [Gleb Bryanski and Vladimir Soldatkin, Reuters, June 27, 2025.]

> The next day — after Donald Trump repeats his demand that Putin end the war — Putin says Russia is ready to resume peace talks with Ukraine. [Sky News Australia, June 28, 2025.]

*. *. *

So now everyone is supposed to begin jumping up and down, clapping their hands and yelling “Hooray!” and “Whoopee!” while preparing for yet another wasted trip to Istanbul . . . all while Putin takes the high road and claims the role of peacemaker?

We’re not supposed to see the modern-day Baba Yaga in all of this?

I hope to heaven we’re smart enough not to buy into Dyed Vlad’s “happily ever after.” But I’m not so sure we are.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/29/25

Until 2023, Finland chose to remain militarily non-aligned. But following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the neutral nation — which shares an 830-mile border with Russia — made the decision to join NATO.

And considering Moscow’s reported military build-up at various locations along its border with Finland, as shown by recent satellite images, that was a wise move. The Finnish authorities are unlikely to forget the Kremlin’s protestations that their 2022 military presence at the Ukrainian border was merely a routine exercise . . . one that is now in its fourth devastating year of all-out war. Nor can they ignore Moscow’s threats of repercussions when Finland joined NATO.

According to military expert Emil Kastehelmi of Finland-based Black Bird Group, which analyzes Russia’s forces near NATO’s eastern borders:

“We have now noticed some new organisational [sic] changes, such as new divisions which are beginning to appear near Finland’s borders. Russia continues to build, prepare and train in the vicinity of Finland’s and NATO’s eastern border.” [Anna Korkman, AFP, June 26, 2025.]

Last month, the Finnish Defense Forces said that “Russia is building more infrastructure to be able to bring in more troops after the war [in Ukraine] is over,” and that Helsinki was “closely monitoring and assessing Russia’s activities and intentions” together with its allies. [Id.]

Finland closed its border with Russia in December of 2023 until further notice, following the arrival of about 1,000 migrants without visas . . . a move that Helsinki attributed to Russia, but which Moscow denied. Now Finland is building a 200-km. (125-mile) border fence to prevent Russia from further “instrumentalising migrants” across the border. [Id.]

While hoping for the best, and trying not to panic at the prospect of a future Russian invasion, the people of Finland are understandably unnerved and are preparing for the worst . . . just in case.

*. *. *

And across the Gulf of Finland in Estonia — another NATO member bordering on Russia, which is already host to a rotating base for NATO jets tasked with protecting Baltic airspace — Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur has stated that his country is ready to accept nuclear-capable jets, if necessary.

“If some of them, regardless of their country of origin, have a dual-use capability to carry nuclear weapons it doesn’t affect our position on hosting F-35s in any way,” he told the Postimees news outlet on Thursday. [Andrew Osborn and Mark Trevelyan, Reuters, June 27, 2025.]

While most of the world recognizes this as a defensive strategy, Moscow, needless to say, does not. And never one to disappoint, our old friend Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s amiable spokesman, had this to say:

“Of course it would be an immediate danger.”

Calling Minister Pevkur’s statement “one of many ‘absurd thoughts’ voiced by politicians in the Baltic region,” he added:

“We have practically no relations with the Baltic republics because it is very difficult to make them worse.” [Id.]

My goodness, Dima, I do believe you made a Freudian slip there: You referred to Estonia as a “Baltic republic.” That is indeed what it was called when it was — unwillingly, I might remind you — one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union. But it is now, and has been since December 1991, a free and independent nation . . . as are the other former Baltic republics of Latvia and Lithuania. They no longer belong to Russia; they are not your “republics” any more.

But methinks you just implied that you and your boss wish it were otherwise.

“Oops!”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/29/25

Last week we were happily able to scratch three names from our list of hostage-prisoners who were included in the release of 14 people from Belarusian prisons: Ihar Karnei, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, and Vladislav Yesypenko.

Sadly, though, Ales Bialiatski and Ihar Losik remain imprisoned, along with too many others who were, for reasons that were not explained, denied release at this time.

So this week we congratulate those who were freed: Karnei, Tsikhanouski, Yesypenko, and eleven others whose names have not been made public. And we continue to support those who await their turns:

Prisoners of War:

The People of Ukraine
The Azov 12

Political Prisoners:

The Azerbaijan 7:
— Farid Mehralizada
— Ulvi Hasanli
— Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai)
— Mahammad Kekalov
— Hafiz Babali
— Nargiz Absalamova
— Elnara Gasimova

David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Ihar Karnei (in Belarus)
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Mikita Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Nika Novak
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Siarhei Tsikhanouski (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea, Ukraine)
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

. . . and any others I may have overlooked.

*. *. *

The work continues . . . you are not forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/29/25

While advanced math is not my field of expertise, I do have a pretty firm grasp of basic arithmetic, which was actually taught to us in a logical manner back in the good old days of “reading and writing and ‘rithmetic.” I can even add and subtract numbers in my head, without having to consult that little calculator thing on my phone.

But today I find myself faced with a puzzle I am unable to solve, and I’m here to ask my readers’ help. The calculations seem simple enough, but the result keeps coming up all wrong.

To begin with, I dug up some current figures (thank you, Google) on various segments of the U.S. population. As of the present time, we have:

26 members of the Presidential Cabinet
535 members of Congress, divided as follows:
— 100 Senators
— 435 Representatives
9 Supreme Court Justices
1,761 other federal judges in 208 appellate, district and special courts
50 state governors
8,500 +/- ICE enforcement agents
2,000,000 +/- active duty members of the military
3,000,000 +/- civilian government employees in more than 400 agencies
347,000,000 +/- total U.S. population
– and –
1 Donald Trump

My puzzle has nothing to do with total numbers, or percentages of government employees vs. civilians. What I really need to know is . . .

WHAT IN HELL ARE THEY ALL AFRAID OF??!!!

How can one person — one unattractive, unprepossessing, ineloquent, untruthful, unempathetic, narcissistic, sarcastic, insulting individual — wield so much power over so many?

Setting aside the millions of us ordinary taxpayers, both civilian and military, let’s just consider the so-called “power elite”: the 26 members of the Cabinet, the 535 members of Congress, the 9 Supreme Court justices, the other 1,761 federal judges, and the 50 state governors — a total of 2,381 highly-educated, supposedly intelligent people in positions of considerable authority. (Yes, I added that in my head.) Factor in an unknown number of heads of various governmental agencies, universities, media outlets, and the like, and we’re talking about well over 3,000 very impressive individuals . . . all knuckling under to one big bully.

For God’s sake . . . WHY?!!

Are they all so terrified of losing their jobs? Or might all 3,000+ people possibly have some deep, dark, personal secrets they’re afraid of having revealed? . . . every last one of them? Even if that were true, could Trump conceivably have knowledge of the skeletons in all of their closets?

And — let’s face it — could their dirty laundry possibly be any dirtier than his?

So what is it? How does one individual manage to gain that type of hypnotic control over masses of people. Vladimir Lenin did it in Russia; Adolph Hitler did it in Germany. And somehow — in some incomprehensible way — Donald Trump is doing it in the United States.

I can see only one link. Lenin and Hitler rose to power when their countries were in economic and social turmoil; they were in the right place at the right time, and they spoke to the outliers of society — the marginalized populace in search of a savior. And that is the lesson Trump has chosen to learn from centuries of the world’s history: the way to absolute authoritarianism.

We all know how things turned out for Russia, Germany, and much of Europe under Lenin and Hitler. Are we going to allow history to repeat itself again?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/28/25

A late headline in yesterday’s news read:

“Trump hails ‘giant win’ after Supreme Court
curbs judges’ power to block his orders.”
[BBC World News, June 27, 2025.]

Accompanying the article was this gloating image:

One of only three who dissented, Justice Sonia Sotomayor bravely spoke out, calling it an ‘open invitation for the government to bypass the Constitution.”

When the highest court in the land and the majority of both houses of the Congress are in the firm grip of a tyrant with no thought but his own satisfaction, the 250-year-old experiment known as American Democracy is within inches of failing.

What was once a shining beacon of hope . . . a symbol of freedom, equality and peace . . . is no longer the America I knew and loved.

I am bereaved.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/28/25