Today’s headlines brought a number of juicy choices as possible subjects for my blog. It also brought on a major case of “I-wish-I-were-a-clown-fish-so-I-could-hide-in-a-coral-reef” syndrome.
Just look at these news items:
Two Israeli Embassy staff members are shot and killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.;
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Trump’s Oval Office ambush of South African President Ramaphosa (complete with films and fake documents) seems to be part of a trend;
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The Defense Department cleared the way for acceptance of a luxury jet from the government of Qatar that will potentially cost billions of dollars to be retrofitted for use as Air Force One;
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The White House has revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students;
The Supreme Court deadlocked in a decision, effectively blocking creation of the nation’s first religious charter school;
A private plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, resulting in multiple deaths, injuries, and destruction of property.
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There was more, but I found that I couldn’t deal with any of it today; it’s just too much. Maybe tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’ll just do this . . .
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “nihilism” thus:
a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless.
a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths;
a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility;
(capitalized) the program of a 19th century Russian party advocating revolutionary reform and using terrorism and assassination.
Other definitions are, simply, “total rejection of established laws and institutions,” and “anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity.”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Russia was the birthplace of the first nihilist movement. One need only read the works of such Russian authors as Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Chernyshevsky . . . or the 19th-century poet Vladimir Pecherin, who famously wrote:
“How sweet it is to hate one’s fatherland and eagerly anticipate its annihilation, and to see in the destruction of one’s fatherland the dawn of worldwide rebirth.”
Vladimir Sergeevich Pecherin
It is that quotation — paraphrased by the character of Dante in the film version of John Le Carre’s The Russia House — that brings to my mind the similarities of those pre-revolutionary days in Russia and today’s political climate . . . not only in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, but, terrifyingly, also in Donald Trump’s vision for America.
Think about the hatchet job he and his administration have done in just four months on our legislature, judiciary, military, media, beloved cultural institutions, environmental and health agencies, international relations, and the most basic tenets of the U.S. Constitution itself.
And then tell me whether you hear echoes, not only of the lead-up to the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, but to the growth of Hitler’s Nazi party in 1930s Germany as well.
Hitler’s Rise to Power
Perhaps I’ve read one (or several) too many volumes of Russian history and literature. But I’ve also read far too many recent news stories not to see a parallel.
It hardly seems possible for one person to win the award twice in such a short period of time, but fair is fair. With the rampant epidemic of stupidity in Washington, the field should be wide open; but Kristi Noem — current head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — still leads the pack . . . for today, at least, or until the next indecipherable mouthful of mush issues forth from the Oval Office.
Already famous for carrying $3,000 in cash in her purse around Washington, D.C., and not holding onto said purse while dining in a Capitol Hill restaurant, she has now further displayed her lack of mental acuity by stating — nay, by insisting — that the definition of that most basic of Constitutional rights, habeas corpus, is the polar opposite of its actual meaning.
During a Senate hearing on May 20th, Noem was asked by Senator Maggie Hassan: “What is habeas corpus?” To which the woman in charge of our nation’s security replied:
“Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.” [Rex Huppke, USA Today, May 20, 2025.]
No, you didn’t misread that — those were her actual words.
Fortunately, Senator Hassan knew better, and offered the following correction:
“Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason. Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.” [Id.]
But that wasn’t a sufficient clue for Noem to keep her mouth shut. Instead, she continued:
“President Lincoln used it. I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.” [Id.]
Kristi Noem
Well, she did get one thing almost right: Lincoln did suspend (not “use”) habeas corpus during the Civil War. And therein lies the difference between Lincoln’s suspension of the provision and Trump’s proposed “use” of it. Article I of the Constitution makes it clear that only Congress has the right to suspend habeas corpus . . . and only “when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion [i.e., war] the public Safety may require it.” [Id.]
May I further point out to Ms. Noem that we, the United States, are not at war. We have not been invaded, nor have we declared war upon another country. There has been no rebellion (not since the attempted one on January 6, 2021, when Trump’s MAGA friends stormed the Capitol . . . but that’s a whole other story).
Noem needs to wake up and smell the lies. Trump would subvert the Constitution for his own purposes . . . in this case, to justify his illegal deportation of immigrants without due process. And she, along with her fellow lemmings in the administration, would blindly follow him anywhere in order to keep their jobs.
So yes, she gets the Golden Dunce Cap Award for this week. Our government, and our tax dollars, at work.
It happens to everyone now and then: you dream about someone you haven’t seen in years, and the next day you bump into that person on the street. Or you have a sudden taste for bouillabaisse, and your sister calls to tell you a new French bistro just opened nearby. And, for just a minute, you wonder whether you might — just possibly — have second sight.
The truth is, you probably don’t. I’m sure I don’t. And I know there are such things as true coincidences. But sometimes, something that is undoubtedly just that — a coincidence — can feel a little eerie. And that’s what happened to me yesterday.
This past weekend, I was looking for something different to watch on TV — something light and cheerful — and I stumbled across one of my favorite old TV sitcoms: Cheers. I watched a couple of episodes, beginning with the very first one, and found myself back in the 1980s with Sam and Diane and Coach and Carla and Norm and Cliff. And for the next three days, I watched a couple of episodes each day, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of being back in those years when life seemed lighter.
George Wendt as Norm Peterson
And yesterday, when I heard the ring tone of a news report hitting my phone, and I saw that George Wendt — who played Norm on Cheers — had passed away, for that one brief moment I thought, just maybe . . .
Nah! . . . Who am I kidding? I’m not psychic.
But I did feel a little strange . . . and terribly sad. Because 40 years ago, those characters were almost real to me, and to a lot of people. Along with the casts of The Golden Girls, M*A*S*H, Hogan’s Heroes, Murphy Brown, Newhart, and a raft of others, those people were as familiar to us as our own, real-life friends. They weren’t the villains, serial killers, or psychotics of today’s films; they were good people, fallible but decent, and we wanted to be part of their improbable, fictitious lives.
Quite simply, they made us smile, and feel good. And that is something that has become all too rare today.
So, here’s to you, George Wendt. I’m sure that somewhere in that great barroom in the sky there’s a bar stool and a draft waiting for you . . . and everyone will know your name.
“So many wars, so many shapes of crime … Unholy Mars bends all to his mad will; The world is like a chariot run wild.” – Virgil
On the very first day after the much-touted phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, which Trump hailed as a successful step toward the immediate beginning of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Putin’s forces launched more than 100 drones into Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force reported damage on the ground in four regions. [David Brennan, GMA, May 20, 2025.]
I initially called that phone conversation to be, at best, a tie between the two. Trump had said direct talks between Russia and Ukraine would begin immediately, but waffled when he said it was time for the U.S. to step back and leave the negotiations to the two warring parties; Putin had promised nothing but a memorandum of talking points to be prepared for presentation to Ukraine; and Trump had optimistically predicted that limitless, mutually-beneficial trade relations would soon be resumed between the U.S. and Russia — which was what the lifelong deal-maker really wanted in the first place.
But even that limited result turned out to be illusory. Without a single day’s relief, Putin — who had taken the call, not from the Kremlin, but from the lovely Russian resort of Sochi on the Black Sea — returned to business as usual: blasting the life out of the Ukrainian people.
Trump had spoken recently of the possibility that Putin might have been “tripping” him all along, and threatened more severe sanctions if he felt that still to be the case after their one-on-one talk. But once again, he failed to follow through, accepting Putin’s terms without receiving so much as a promise of a temporary ceasefire.
I was wrong: that call did not end in a tie. It was yet another total embarrassment for Trump.
And this is what I’d like to know:
When will Donald Trump get it through his thick skull that Vladimir Putin is by far the shrewder politician, and has not only been “tripping” him for years, but nailing his hide to the wall? Will he ever realize that Putin does nothing without a self-serving reason and a fool-proof end game already worked out? And if Trump does figure it out, will he have the guts to admit it and follow through with appropriate action?
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” – Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2
But this is not a chess game; the future of the world rests on a final resolution. And the world is running out of time.
First came Romania, where a month of political uproar ended yesterday in a win by the liberal, pro-EU mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, with 53.6% of the vote.
Nicusor Dan
Following the annulment of last year’s presidential race due to claims of Russian interference, hard-right nationalist candidate Calin Georgescu was disqualified, and new elections were scheduled.
Dan’s opponent in this month’s race — far-right AUR party leader George Simion — won the first-round vote earlier this month, and was expected to follow through with a second-round victory as well.
But Romanians, eager for a change, put their faith in Dan, who campaigned on promises of fighting corruption and maintaining support for neighboring Ukraine, saying:
“I want to choose the pro-European way. It’s the only way. It’s really important.” [BBC, May 19, 2025.]
And no one is more aware of the importance of this outcome than Romania’s other neighbors, Moldova and Ukraine. Moldova’s President, Maia Sandu, said that “Moldova and Romania stand together, supporting one another and working side by side for a peaceful, democratic, and European future for all our citizens.” [Id.]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had this to add: “For Ukraine, as a neighbour and friend, it is important to have Romania as a reliable partner.” [Id.]
Good news for most of Europe, indeed.
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To make the day complete, Poland — already in the capable hands of Prime Minister Donald Tusk — also gave the largest number of votes in its first presidential election round to liberal Mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski. However, with only 31.3% of the vote, and a 29.5% share going to conservative Karol Nawrocki, a second round will be held on June 1st. [Adam Easton, BBC, May 19, 2025.]
Rafal Trzaskowski
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Of course, no election, anywhere in the world, would be complete without follow-up comments from the fun bunch in the Kremlin. And they did not disappoint yesterday, either.
Needless to say, Vladimir Putin was less than pleased with Romania’s choice of West-friendly Dan. His spokesman, the irrepressible Dmitry Peskov, had this to offer:
“We know the story of the candidate who had the best chance of winning. Without bothering to find any justification, he was simply forcibly removed from the race.” [Reuters, May 19, 2025.]
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov
Oh, Dima . . . have you never heard the adage about people in glass houses throwing stones?
Of course, Russia has previously denied any role in Georgescu’s campaign, accusing Romanian authorities of political manipulation.
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And then, oddly, into the picture stepped multi-billionaire Pavel Durov. You may remember him as the Russian-born founder of the Telegram messenger app, who holds multiple citizenships (Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates, and Saint Kitts and Nevis). He left Russia when the Putin government pressured him to release confidential information on clients of his first successful venture, VKontakte (VK), and has been dividing his time mainly between France and the UAE.
Pavel Durov
But Durov got into similar difficulty with the French government over some of his, shall we say, less savory Telegram clients. He is currently under investigation, and unable to leave France.
Well, not a lot has been heard from him for a while, until recently, when he accused French intelligence of “pressur[ing] him to suppress voices supportive of hard-right [Romanian] runner-up George Simion, who had pledged to end military aid to Ukraine.” [Reuters, May 19, 2025.]
Despite denials by France’s foreign intelligence service, the Kremlin’s Peskov said:
“The fact that European countries, France, Great Britain, Germany, interfere in the internal affairs of other countries is not news.” [Id.]
In real news — the Trump-Putin match — the first round, based on currently available information, appears to be . . .
A TIE.
Following his much-anticipated, two-hour telephone meeting with Vladimir Putin, Trump announced:
“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War. The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.” [Kit Mahere and Donald Judd, CNN, May 19, 2025.]
Saying that the “tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent,” he added in his post on Truth Social:
“Russia wants to do largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over, and I agree. There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED.” He also said that Ukraine “can be a great beneficiary on Trade.” [Id.]
While at first face this would appear to be a win for Trump, merely by reason of Putin’s agreeing to undertake direct negotiations with Ukraine (though not specifically with President Zelensky), it only takes a reading of that last paragraph to see that both individuals — Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin — have worked out a means of getting exactly what most benefits them.
Trump, of course, claims bragging rights as the Great Negotiator: the only person in the world able to bring about the desired result.
Putin wins more time . . . time to stretch out the “negotiations” as long as he desires, without having agreed to an immediate ceasefire. His remarks to Russian media following the call indicated that it was “very substantive and quite frank,” and that “Moscow would prepare a memorandum with pre-conditions for a ceasefire.” [RFE/RL, May 19, 2025.]
And together they have opened the door to “TRADE” . . . which in turn implies a lifting of sanctions against Russia, and monetary benefit to both countries.
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In short, while the call was certainly worth the long-distance roaming charges, I will hold off on any celebrations until we see what Putin’s “pre-conditions for a ceasefire” turn out to be. If it’s more of the same-old-same-old, then we’re back to square one. But if there are genuine offers of compromise . . . well, then — as Trump said:
Remember those halcyon days of childhood and elementary school, when the seemingly endless hours of reading, writing and arithmetic were interrupted by a 15-minute break for fresh air and exercise known as “recess”?
I recall games of tag, climbing on the jungle gym, playing kickball . . . and the occasional argument erupting between friends. They rarely involved physical combat; instead, name-calling was the favored weapon. And those names could really hurt.
It might start out with something like, “You can’t be on our team because you’re a lousy player.” At which point, the offended child — knowing he wasn’t much of an athlete but being possessed of a superior vocabulary — would summon up the ultimate retort:
“Oh, yeah? Well, you’re a big, fat, ugly, smelly, stupid jerk . . . and you wet your pants!”
And they wouldn’t speak to each other for a day or two, by which time all would be forgotten and forgiven. No one was scarred for life, and I’m reasonably certain most of us outgrew our childish impulses.
But some kids didn’t. Occasionally, we see the bullied become bullies, with an occasional sociopath thrown in for good measure.
And speaking of bullies . . .
You know him; everyone knows him. He is the Bully-in-Chief; the guy who likes nothing better than to have people kowtowing to him, fearing retribution if they step out of line. And if someone dares to insult him, or even disagree with him on even the most trivial subject, he immediately regresses to become again that kid in the playground; summons up his vast vocabulary of insults; and lets loose . . . only now, he shouts his wrath, not just to the kids on the playground, but to the entire world on social media.
And this week’s victims? None other than the multi-talented Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen, neither of whom needs an introduction.
Swift’s sin was publicly endorsing Kamala Harris for president last year. Trump responded at the time — oh, so maturely — “I hate Taylor Swift.”
Wow! That took a lot of thought. And now, months later, he has brought her name up again, since it’s obviously been eating away at the lining of his intestines ever since. His most recent comment, written on social media on Friday, was:
“Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’” [JD Knapp, The Wrap, May 16, 2025.]
Sorry, but no . . . I hadn’t noticed.
The Very “Hot” Taylor Swift
And I wonder what a psychologist would have to say about his frequent use of all upper-case letters. Those, and his bold-Sharpie, mile-high signature. But I digress.
As for Springsteen, he had the audacity to say, during the start of his current European tour, that he considered the Trump administration to be “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous”:
“They are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now. In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and moral society. They’re abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.” [Id.]
And The Boss continued:
“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ‘n’ roll in dangerous times. In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.
“Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!” [Parul Sharma, Irish Star, May 19, 2025.]
Strong words, indeed . . . but not untrue, and therefore not slanderous. They represent the opinion and the sincere feelings of a loyal, honest, patriotic American — and they contain echoes of the 1960s, when non-violent protests had meaning and effect.
And here is where Trump was at his finest, displaying his literary eloquence, his astonishing self-control, and his uncanny ability to stay on-topic. Again utilizing his very own Truth Social outlet, he offered this to his latest target:
“I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country.
“If I wasn’t elected, it would have been GONE by now! Sleepy Joe didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, but Springsteen is ‘dumb as a rock’ and couldn’t see what was going on, or could he (which is even worse!)? This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!” [The Wrap, op.cit.]
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I am, for once, rendered speechless. I do have one question, however:
Did those last two sentences sound like a threat to anyone else?
It was just yesterday — Saturday, May 17th — when Donald Trump announced that he and Vladimir Putin were scheduled to speak by phone on Monday, May 19th, at 10:00 a.m. EST (4:00 p.m. CET):
“The subject of the call will be … stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade. Hopefully it will be a productive day, a cease-fire will take place, and this very violent war, a war that should never have happened, will end.” [RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, May 17, 2025.]
That’s what he said.
And what did Vladimir Putin say in response? Well . . . nothing. Not immediately.
Instead, he launched Russia’s biggest drone attack against Ukraine since the beginning of the war more than three years ago. Several aeas were hit, including the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions in the east, and the capital city of Kyiv, where one woman was killed and at least three others injured, including a four-year-old child.
Kyiv, Ukraine – May 18, 2025
On the same day, Putin — through his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov — finally spoke . . . but not about the upcoming conference call with Trump. Instead, he said that Putin might meet with Ukraine’s President Zelensky, but only if “certain agreements” were reached. Without specifying what those agreements would entail, Peskov went on to say that such a meeting would only be possible if the two sides were to “achieve certain results in the form of agreements.”
He then added: “At the same time, when signing documents that the delegations are to agree upon, the main and fundamental thing for us remains who exactly will sign these documents from the Ukrainian side.” [Dmitry Antonov and Mark Trevelyan, Reuters, May 17, 2025.]
And there it is: yet another gigantic monkey wrench thrown into the diplomatic machinery. In addition to his hard-and-fast demands that Ukraine sacrifice its territory, its security, and its independence, Putin has thrown down the gauntlet in respect of his allegations that Volodymyr Zelensky is not the legitimate president of Ukraine.
This is nothing new . . . he has brought it up before, insisting that Zelensky’s term ended a year ago and that new elections must be held. He of course ignores the fact that Ukraine has been under martial law throughout the war that he, Putin, started . . . and that Ukraine’s constitution provides that no election may be held during times of martial law.
But Putin wants a new election in Ukraine in order to install someone of his own choosing — someone subservient to him, much like Aleksandr Lukashenko in Belarus. And in addition, he has instituted another delaying tactic by which he can continue to batter the Ukrainian people until (he hopes) they can fight no longer.
Putin’s Peace Initiative
So while the first “he” (Trump, in unity with a coalition of European allies) continues to press for serious negotiations, the second “he” (Putin) stalls, dissembles, promises, breaks promises, and lies his face off in order to attain his ultimate goal: reabsorption of Ukraine into a new, revitalized Soviet Union.
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Will the promised phone call take place tomorrow? Only Vladimir Putin can answer that.
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