It’s as old as history itself. We know what Cain did to Abel. What Henry VIII did to a great many people, including a couple of wives. What Lenin did to Nicholas II and his entire family. What Stalin did to his generals. What Hitler did to six million Jews and a great many other perceived “undesirables.”

And in today’s world, we know what Vladimir Putin has done and is doing to those who have dared to oppose him: Boris Nemtsov, Aleksandr Litvinenko, Anna Politkovskaya, Boris Berezovsky, Aleksei Navalny, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and countless others — dead, or locked away in Siberian penal colonies.

We see Putin’s protege, Aleksandr Lukashenko, following suit by eliminating his detractors in his own manner. When asked whether the past weekend’s presidential election in Belarus had been free and fair,

“ . . . Lukashenko has explained that his political opponents had ‘chosen’ prison or exile.” [Reuters (citing The Guardian), January 27, 2025.]

Right . . . the ten political prisoners in Belarus about whom I have written recently — and who knows how many others — no doubt have always dreamt of being locked up and tortured for voicing their opinions.

We’ve seen it, heard about it, reacted to it with expressions of horror and disbelief. But those things happened — and keep happening — in other countries . . . far-away places, ruled by dictators. We Americans have always believed it couldn’t happen here.

But it can . . . and it has.

No, not to the same degree, certainly. People are not being assassinated, or hidden away in an Arctic archipelago of penal colonies. But they are being targeted, simply because they have in some way displeased the person currently in authority.

Consider, for example:

— Losing your job because you did your job: It has happened to more than a dozen Justice Department officials who participated in the criminal investigation of then private citizen Donald Trump.

— Losing your Secret Service protection, despite ongoing threats resulting from having done your job: It has happened to former White House national security adviser John Bolton, and to former chief medical adviser to President Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

— Losing your security clearance — and thus potentially your source of income — for having said the “wrong” thing about the Hunter Biden investigation: It has happened to dozens of former national security officials.

— Having your picture removed from the wall of honor — in effect, your history erased — where you honorably did your job: It has happened to former U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley.

— Being threatened with prosecution for having won the 2020 election: It is happening to President Joe Biden.

— Being threatened with 50% tariffs, and ultimately forced into capitulation, because you initially refused to go along with some mad deportation scheme: It has happened to the President and the entire population of the South American nation of Colombia.

— And who knows what punishment awaits the person who dares to be wealthier, more successful, more charismatic, and much much smarter than the guy in charge, and doesn’t give a crap what anyone thinks of him? It could even happen to someone like Elon Musk.

All of that was in just one week . . . and does not include the actions being taken against entire categories of people — government agencies, recipients of government funding, ethnic groups, immigrants — simply because they do not comport with a single individual’s preferences.

If it all sounds too familiar, that is because it is history repeating itself. It is the echo of rumblings once heard in pre-Revolutionary Russia, and in 1930s Germany.

And don’t kid yourself into thinking that we’re so very different . . . because we’re not. It CAN happen here.

But only if we let it.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/29/25

Forget, for the moment, the pandemonium being unleashed by the new occupants of the White House.

Every now and then — a little too often, lately — I decide I can’t take much more of the news emanating from there and from the rest of the world, and I need a bit of happy to get me through the day.

And what could be happier than a couple of playful animals . . . in this case, the pair of Chinese giant pandas at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. They have just been introduced to the public after becoming acclimated to their new surroundings, and Panda-mania has once again descended upon our nation’s capital.

So, without further ado, here are the true toasts of the town: Bao Li and Qing Bao.

Please don’t ask me who’s who, because I have no idea. But it only matters to them, really . . . and to the lucky staff members at the zoo who have the great pleasure of caring for them.

I just thought their pictures might make a few people smile today — it certainly worked for me.

They are far more fun to watch than that pair on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/28/25

Actually, it’s a good news / odd news day.

This rather strange story comes, not from Russia, as one might expect, but from Belarus, where politically-motivated arrests have been on the upswing in recent years.

Word has been received that American citizen Anastasia Nuhfer was released from detainment in a Belarusian prison on January 26th. That’s the very good news.

The odd news is that no details of her arrest, imprisonment or release are available at this time . . . because Belarusian officials had never publicly disclosed her name. Who she is, what she was doing in Belarus, why she was arrested, why it was kept quiet, and why she was suddenly released all remain unknown, for whatever reason.

What has been made quite public, though, is the immediate claim of credit by the current U.S. administration for having (allegedly) engineered Ms. Nuhfer’s release. Admittedly, it is difficult to judge, when no details are available; but it seems logical that the Biden administration must initially have been involved, as the U.S. State Department said on Sunday that Ms. Nuhfer was detained in early December of 2024. Thus, it would have been more than a month before the current administration stepped in to pick up any ongoing negotiations.

I can’t help but think back 44 years to January 20, 1981, when President Jimmy Carter was deprived of the full credit he deserved for the release of 52 American hostages held in Iran for 444 days . . . on the very day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration . . . after more than a year of intense negotiations. As a result, the historical records show that the prisoners technically were released during Reagan’s administration, despite the arrangements having already been concluded by President Carter and Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

And now, in a classic instance of “deja vu all over again,” brand-new Secretary of State Marco Rubio has posted this smirking bit of self-aggrandizement:

“Thanks to @POTUS leadership, Belarus just unilaterally released an innocent American, ANASTASSIA [sic] Nuhfer, who was taken under JOE BIDEN! @ChrisWelbySmith from our team did a great job on this. PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH” [RFE/RL, January 26, 2025.]

Sickeningly reminiscent of the Tweet-fest that emanated from the White House between 2017 and 2021, it would seem that either Secretary Rubio has been studying his boss’ writing style, or the boss is doing his writing for him — misspelling, all caps, and exclamation point included.

One final thought: Perhaps neither administration deserves credit for this happy event, since both Rubio and Lukashenko have stated that the decision to release Ms. Nuhfer was a “unilateral” one. We might just be able to chalk this one up to the Belarusian tyrant’s sucking up to the new guy in the Oval Office.

So, please . . . can we all just rejoice, welcome Ms. Nuhfer home, and leave the strutting to the peacocks?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/28/25

Monday morning, January 27th, 2025, and this is how I’m feeling.

Someone please do me a favor, and wake me when it’s November 2028. Until then, I’ll be hunkered down, seeking solace with my fellow hairy frogfish, and counting the days ‘til the next election.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/27/25

** It’s not sci-fi or AI — it’s a real thing. Check it out.

Today is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

I read yesterday of an Israeli woman — Hila Weisz-Gut — who is the only Jewish resident in the town of Oswiecim, Poland (population 34,000). [Allison Gordon, CNN, January 26, 2025.]

Being part of a minority population is nothing new for Jewish people in many countries . . . though being the last one standing is rather unusual. However, what truly sets Hila Weisz-Gut apart is the proximity of the town in which she lives to that most notorious of the World War II Nazi concentration camps: Auschwitz.

Hila moved from Israel with her Polish husband to his hometown of Oswiecim in 2023, despite the fact that nearly every member of her grandmother’s family had been lethally gassed there upon arrival from Hungary in the 1940s. In fact, she can see from her bedroom window the very place where her grandmother managed to survive. [Id.]

While her decision to relocate has been met with derision on the part of many of her Israeli and other Jewish acquaintances, she says that her new neighbors have been welcoming and kind:

“I haven’t had even one altercation that connected to antisemitism,” she says. [Id.]

She should — and no doubt does — consider herself very fortunate, in light of the appalling rise in antisemitism being seen in many parts of Europe, including France and Germany. I cannot even imagine the level of inner strength and resolve it must have taken for her to face her family history and begin a new phase of her life in the shadow of the most unspeakable genocide in the history of mankind.

I know I could not do it, even though my family members were all safely ensconced in the United States long before the Holocaust.

*. *. *

In 2009, as part of a Baltic Cruise with my sister, one of our ports of call was Rostok (Warnemunde), Germany. We had chosen as our shore excursion a train ride to Berlin, a tour of the city, and a side trip by bus to the nearby town of Oranienburg — a town that I recall as resembling a picture postcard (if you’re old enough to remember those), with lovely little cottages sporting window boxes of red geraniums all along the route we took.

But we merely passed through the charming neighborhoods, not stopping, and after a short distance reached our true destination: Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. My sister was a long-time student of World War II history, with particular emphasis on the Holocaust.

Sachsenhausen was said by our tour guide to have been one of the “lesser” camps — not an abattoir like Auschwitz. There were no gas chambers, we were told; but there was a crematorium, and a “hospital” where medical experiments were performed on the inmates — a whole different type of horror — as well as a barracks that still held the sleeping quarters and toilet areas. A small museum contained exhibits detailing the overcrowded living conditions: freezing cold in winter and steaming hot in summer.

We were there on a pleasantly warm summer day, and although the windows and door were open to the fresh air, the rooms felt close and I was finding it difficult to breathe. As I read the descriptions of the horrific conditions that once existed, I could imagine hearing the groans and cries of those prisoners . . . and I suddenly knew I was about to be violently ill. I told my sister I needed air and rushed outside, gasping for breath but managing to keep from losing the large lunch we had enjoyed in Berlin.

My sister came after me, of course; and as I began to feel better, we strolled around the grounds for a few minutes, coming across a single gravestone close by the barracks. Whether there was actually anyone buried there, we had no way of knowing; there was no carving on the stone. But several people had laid pebbles on top of the marker, and we found some small grey stones with which to pay our respects to all those who had not survived that place of horror.

That was one of the most difficult days of my life: visiting the sites of Kristallnacht, the bunker where Hitler committed suicide, the remains of the Berlin Wall, and Sachsenhausen. After all of that, could I ever think of also visiting Auschwitz?

No . . .

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/27/25

Just when you think it can’t get any worse . . .

. . . you find out that Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko is removing children from their parents’ care and placing them in state orphanages on grounds of their being in a “socially dangerous situation.” [Farangis Najibullah and RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, January 22, 2025.]

These are not parents who are criminals, child abusers, drunks or drug addicts. They are people who have been charged with “spreading extremist material” — a civil violation used against those who are critical of the Lukashenko regime. And in cases of parents who may be suspected of a violation but not yet charged, the mere threat of having their children taken away is usually enough to shut them up.

One activist has said — on condition of anonymity — that the definition of “extremist material” is regularly updated by the Interior Ministry, and includes independent media websites that are banned in Belarus. Merely subscribing to, commenting on, or sharing their articles is enough to bring about an accusation of extremism. He also stated:

“A social worker told me that a special commission in the local government spends just 15 minutes per family to discuss and decide whether to add them to the list of those in ‘socially dangerous situations.’” [Id.]

So, on the basis of a 15-minute interview, children can be kidnapped and dumped into state-run orphanages, as punishment to their parents — all so that this tyrant can “win” another “election.”

I do not believe that is what the Old Testament means by “the sins of the father . . .” But neither do I believe that what the Bible says is of any concern to Lukashenko.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/26/25

This week, it grows by a heartbreaking seven names — three reported on, and four others receiving “honorable mention” — including a Nobel Peace Prize winner in Belarus; an activist whose wife ran against incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko in Belarus’ 2020 election but was forced into exile; and, in Moscow, a Russian man accused of passing classified information to a U.S. intelligence agency.

We start with this gentleman: Ales Bialiatski, being held in Penal Colony No. 9 in eastern Belarus.

Bialiatski, age 62 but looking 20 years older, has been labeled an “extremist” by authorities, and as such, has been singled out by the authorities for harsh treatment, including denial of medications, food parcels from home, and contact with relatives, as well as undergoing forced labor and time spent in punishment (solitary confinement) cells.

He was arrested in 2021 in a raid by Belarus’ KGB, and was held without trial until 2023, when he was convicted on charges of smuggling and financing actions that “grossly violated public order.” Labeled “especially dangerous,” he was sentenced to ten years in prison. His wife has not heard from him since August, and a food parcel she had sent him was returned to her in November. Word received via other prisoners is that his health has seriously deteriorated due to his abysmal living conditions and brutal maltreatment. [Yuras Karmanau, AP, January 19, 2025.]

His real crime: working with the Viasna Human Rights Centre of Belarus, helping people targeted by law enforcement . . . thus becoming a target himself.

Viasna’s offices were shut down and six prominent members arrested, including Bialiatski. Four others — Valiantsin Stefanovic, Uladzimir Labkovich, Marfa Rabkova, and Andrei Chapiuk — are serving sentences ranging from five years and nine months to nearly 15 years.

It appears as though a separate list of Lukashenko’s victims may become a tragic necessity.

*. *. *

In 2020, Siarhei Tsikhanouski — a well-known activist opposing the Lukashanko government — announced his intention to run in the presidential election. He was arrested two days later.

His wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, famously attempted to campaign in his place, and was forced into exile to escape arrest. Recipient of the 2024 Democracy Service Medal awarded by the National Endowment for Democracy, she remains in exile.

She has not heard from her husband for nearly 700 days. [Id.]

*. *. *

And finally — because my soul cannot possibly take any more today — is Dmitry Shatresov, 40, found guilty by the Moscow City Court of “committing high treason in favor of the United States,” as reported to the TASS news agency by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) (successor to the KGB). [Reuters, January 23, 2025.]

The report stated that:

“It was established that Shatresov D.A., having obtained by illegal methods information which constituted state secrets, (and) guided by criminal intent, intended to transfer it to a representative of American Intelligence.” [Id.]

I note that the TASS report states that he “intended to transfer … [information] to … American Intelligence” — not that any such transfer was actually accomplished. Yet he has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

As of the time of reporting, no response to a request for comment had been received from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and Shatresov’s lawyer had thus far declined to answer questions. The only personal information in the Reuters report, other than his age, is the fact that he lived in an unspecified city just outside of Moscow, and worked in “logistics.” [Id.]

Is Shatresov actually guilty of attempting to pass classified information to U.S. intelligence? Or is he another victim of Putin’s paranoid purges? As an American, I subscribe wholeheartedly to the belief that an individual should be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. So — unless and until that happens — he makes my list of those considered to be political prisoners.

Which, sadly enlarged, is as follows . . . lest we forget:

David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Marc Fogle
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Ksenia Karelina
Ihar Karney (in Belarus)
Vadim Kobzev
Andrey Kuznechyk (in Belarus)
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
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)
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

To each of you, I wish courage, patience, and safe home.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/26/25

Would you accept a challenge to sit down at the chess table with this man?

I wouldn’t. But this man has:

And it should be quite a match. On one side, you have a callous, cold-blooded, vengeful, tyrannical, ruthless, vicious, vindictive, autocratic narcissist for whom losing — at anything — is never an option.

While across the table, you have a callous, cold-blooded, vengeful, tyrannical, ruthless, vicious, vindictive, autocratic narcissist for whom losing — at anything — is never an option.

Do you know which is which? It’s nearly impossible to tell them apart, when each believes he’s King of the World. The only discernible difference is that one, as far as the world knows, has never actually had anyone murdered.

I know that in a real-life game of chess, it’s the Queen who dominates, and not the King. But in such a testosterone-laden real-life situation as this one, I thought it best, just this once, to go for political correctness.

*. *. *

The problem is, we’re not talking about a game between friends, or even a professional match offering the winner bragging rights and a possible mention in the Guinness Book of World Records. What we are talking about is the future of 37 million people and the sovereignty of their nation.

That would be Ukraine, of course.

And its future — the fate of its people — rests in the hands of two men who care nothing about anything but their own glory.

So they’ve begun their little tap dance, or dog-and-pony show, or whatever you want to call this farce that masquerades as a diplomatic exchange.

One — the one who doesn’t seem to have killed anyone yet — has posted on his very own social media website:

“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.” [Steve Gutterman, RFE/RL, January 24, 2025.]

That’s tough talk . . . which, of course, requires a response. So the second tyrant, speaking through his press secretary, says they don’t see “any particularly new elements here.” And then he has his personal favorite TV host broadcast to the people this comforting message:

“What, is it possible to talk to Russia that way? What, are we losing the war? Is the enemy at our gates?” [Id.]

Again, except for the fact that they speak two different languages, they are as indistinguishable as two kids on the playground yelling at each other: “Did so!” “Did not!” “Did so!” “Did not!” . . . until their mothers call them in for dinner.

Only who’s going to call these two in from their playground before they lose control?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/25/25

Clearly, the victim loses.

And that is precisely what will happen if — as the present occupant of the Oval Office has suggested — Russia is granted possession of an inch of Ukraine’s territory as part of a negotiated settlement.

That . . . and much, much more will happen when Vladimir Putin sets his sights on his next victim: Moldova, perhaps, or one of the Baltic states.

Even worse, now the man in the White House is saying that Ukrainian President Zelensky “shouldn’t have allowed this war to happen . . . Zelenskyy [sic] was fighting a much bigger entity, much bigger, much more powerful. He shouldn’t have done that, because we could’ve made a deal … and Zelenskyy [sic] decided that I want to fight.” [Zac Anderson, USA Today, January 24, 2025.]

True, the guy sitting behind the Resolute Desk is talking about putting more pressure on Putin, primarily in the form of bigger and more punishing sanctions. Big deal. How much good have those sanctions done Ukraine over the past three years? The war continues unabated, and Russia — while unquestionably suffering substantial economic distress — has not ceased to function, and has only increased its brutal attacks on Ukraine’s civilian population. And it has pushed Russia into further tightening its alliances with China, Iran, and other enemies of the Western allies.

And, once again, the person who would advise another world leader to give away pieces of his country overlooks the incontrovertible fact that it is Vladimir Putin — not Volodymyr Zelensky — who is the aggressor, the warmonger . . . the bully. To give him one iota of what he is demanding from Ukraine would only clear the path for his mad march through the rest of Europe.

All of which brings me to the most frightening question of all for that occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:

If Vladimir Putin — or anyone of his ilk — came banging at the proverbial gates of Washington, would you just do the easy thing and “make a deal”?

And if you have to think for even a nanosecond before answering, then you do not deserve to walk the same halls that once housed the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Fitzgerald Kennedy — presidents who stood up to our would-be oppressors and kept our country safe and free.

But most of the world already knows that.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/25/25

I never cease to be amazed at the way the human mind works . . . How a single sound, or picture, or scent can conjure up a memory, which in turn leads to another, and then connects to something entirely different.

Last evening I was listening to the cover of “The Sound of Silence” by the heavy metal band Disturbed, which naturally made me think back to the days of Simon and Garfunkel. And suddenly it was the summer of 1991 again, and I was mentally back in Prague, working in the newly established office of an American law firm and reveling in the excitement of Czechoslovakia’s freedom from Soviet occupation.

The Berlin Wall had come down a year and a half earlier, and the Soviet Union was on the cusp of breaking apart. When I arrived in Prague, it was the week that the last of the Soviet military troops left the city, and the people were in full celebration mode. One of our drivers — a local man named Rudy — had scored a handful of tickets to a concert the following weekend at the Sparta football (soccer to us Americans) stadium . . . and there was a ticket for me.

It was also the “Summer of Mozart” in Prague, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Mozart was everywhere — in concerts, posters, memorabilia — and I soaked up as much of it as I could. But the event at the Sparta stadium was special, because the performer was an American star.

I had traveled 4,300 miles to see Paul Simon’s “Born At the Right Time” tour. I just happened to be there at the right time.

It was a magical night: a warm summer evening under the stars, the familiar music wafting through the air, younger people from the audience dancing on the stadium grounds . . . and Czech President Vaclav Havel in attendance, clearly visible from our seats.

One of the women in our office had a tape of an earlier Simon & Garfunkel concert and brought it into the office, where we had a boombox (remember those?). One of the songs on that tape was “Homeward Bound,” and as the summer wore on — though it was clearly the best summer of my life — I became a little homesick and played that one song over and over again, until I nearly wore the tape out.

When it was time to leave my new Czech “family” and return home to the U.S., though, it was with a heavy heart. That summer had given me so much: my first experience of living as an expatriate; immersion in the culture and history of a place that had survived World War II and occupations by Nazi Germany and the USSR; the music of Mozart; side trips to castles, mountains, and a town called Pisek; all of the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of a previously unfamiliar place; and a raft of wonderful new friends.

*. *. *

“The Sound of Silence” was on that tape too. And I had always considered the Simon & Garfunkel arrangement to be unbeatable. But not long ago, younger family members suggested I listen to a version of it by someone (or something) called “Disturbed.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Never mind who it is; just listen,” they told me.

So I did, on YouTube, with the video of a man with a strong, gravelly voice and the most compelling eyes: David Draiman, lead singer of a heavy metal band called Disturbed. And . . . full disclosure here . . . I was transfixed, transported, and transformed. It is now the only version of that song that I can listen to. It is mesmerizing.

Heavy metal? Me?!! Never! Except for this one song by this one singer.

Sorry, Paul and Art. I love you still; and to this day, “Homeward Bound” takes me back to that unforgettable summer in Prague and Paul’s concert at the Sparta stadium.

But — though in an aesthetic sense it does “disturb” me to admit it — Disturbed’s rendition of “The Sound of Silence” wins the day.

You’re never too old to try something new.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/24/25