I was just a tiny tyke when World War II ended in 1945, but there are a few images — sort of mental screen shots — that managed to implant themselves in my young mind: movie newsreels of Japanese soldiers, U.S. war planes, and “Herr Schicklgruber,” (as Adolph Hitler was often referred to); the banner in my grandparents’ front window with a star for each son and son-in-law fighting overseas; and, at long last, dancing happily around the apple tree in our front yard when my mother shouted out the news to my older sister that the war in Europe was over.

And I recall rationing of staples like butter and sugar; saving our newspapers for the paper drive; and everyone driving more slowly in order to save gas and reduce wear on the car’s tires.

And wondering whether it might have been my seaman uncle in this famous picture from Times Square on V-E Day. (It wasn’t.)

But as I recall growing up through the 1940s and ‘50s, I remember other things . . . feelings, mostly. Like the comfort of knowing that our neighbors, in addition to our families, were looking out for us kids. And being taught that studying hard would lead to better jobs and better lives in the future. And the absolute belief that our parents and teachers knew what was best for us — even when we were being punished for some infraction of the rules.

And the respect and compassion that adults had for one another . . . and for themselves. You didn’t strike out in anger because someone disagreed with you; you didn’t call another person a scumbag, or a liar, or a thief — unless you had absolute proof that the person was indeed a thief. And you didn’t make fun of another individual’s looks, or disabilities or shortcomings, or their political or religious beliefs. Because that would have been mean, and meanness was bullying, and bullying was unacceptable.

Of course, there was no internet then, and no social media to hide behind. If you had a gripe with someone, you had to confront that person and discuss it face-to-face, or avoid them completely. It took guts to stand up to someone . . . and even more to call a truce.

The world I grew up in had heroes: real ones, like Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Harry Truman. We trusted our leaders to honor their pledges, and to take care of our world for us . . . and they did. Their self-interests were secondary.

Even our fictitious heroes were the good guys: Superman, the Lone Ranger, and any character played by Gary Cooper. Our movie heroines may have been a bit unrealistically portrayed as frail, pure and chaste; but our real-life heroines were strong and smart, like Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, and Golda Meir.

*. *. *

I suppose a nostalgic longing for the “good old days” is a normal part of growing older. And life was never perfect — not in any generation, or any century. But if I had to choose one aspect of my childhood and early adulthood that is missing now, and that I would give anything to bring back, it would be this:

Respect.

Because without it, we are not truly human.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/13/25

For days — far too many days — we have read about the wildfires tearing through the Los Angeles area, turning entire neighborhoods into piles of ash, destroying the lives of thousands of residents . . . and tragically taking others.

We have heard and read and viewed the heartbreaking stories of people suddenly homeless, their precious memories and belongings — collected over a lifetime — taken from them in moments.

And we have heard from those who waste no time expounding on their theories of who is to blame: the Governor of California, the water authority, or some mythical god on Mount Olympus.

I am a lifelong East Coast resident; I know nothing about the water situation in California. I’m not a firefighter, and I have no inkling of the best way to handle or prevent these out-of-control wildfires that seem to strike California more than anywhere else in the country. And I certainly don’t know who or what created the first spark that started this particular conflagration.

But I do know one thing . . . something that has gotten far too little attention in the news . . . and that is the fact that we owe a huge debt of gratitude to our neighbors to the north and south — Canada and Mexico — for jumping in with air tankers, firefighters and technicians to help extinguish the blazes and save as much of the region as possible. [Adeel Hassan, New York Times, January 11, 2025.]

This is what neighbors and friends do for one another. And they do it in spite of border disputes, threatened tariffs, or hard feelings about other issues. They do it because they are good people . . . and because it is the right thing to do.

So, though mine is just one small voice in the wilderness, let me say here: Thank you, Canada. Thank you, Mexico.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/12/25

With the new year has come a new realization . . . or, more accurately, a new willingness to admit to something I’ve realized for a while now: I’m getting stale.

Now, cut that out! Things aren’t that bad . . . yet.

It’s actually this blog that’s getting stale. Because I have, for the most part, been focused on the daily news — some good, but mostly depressing or at least worrisome — and it is, by its very nature, repetitious. I mean, the events in Russia, Ukraine, China, the Middle East, etc., are ongoing, day after endless day. The cataclysmic wildfires in California are still raging. Donald Trump is still president-elect of the United States. And Elon Musk is still . . . well . . . Elon Musk.

Fortunately for the world, there isn’t always something new and disastrous to write about on a daily basis. And I’ve tried searching for good news, happy events, things that make you say “Awww!” And there aren’t a whole lot of those, either.

So I’ve decided to try to make stuff up on occasion — today being the first of those occasions. And, borrowing from an old friend who used to create the annual Library Quiz in my former law firm, I thought I’d start with a little quiz of my own . . . though not nearly as cerebral as his were.

If anyone is still reading at this point, I invite you to reboot your brains by identifying the books, movies, and TV series that featured the following characters, and — for extra Brownie points — the respective authors or actors. There are no prizes, no winners or losers; it’s just for fun.

These are, by the way, some of my personal favorites; it is not a comprehensive list of anyone else’s idea of the “best” or “classics,” though I have tried to avoid really obscure works.

So, without further ado, here we go, starting with an easy one:

Boo Radley (book and movie)
Raskolnikov (book) (hint: Russian, as though you hadn’t guessed)
John Galt (great book, terrible movie)
Bartholomew Scott Blair (book and movie)
Roxie Hart (movie and Broadway show)
Tevye the Dairyman (book, movie and Broadway show)
Lara Antipova (book and movie)
Holly Golightly (movie)
Josiah Bartlet (TV series)
Melanie Hamilton (book and movie)
Lady Mary Crawley (TV series)
Count Aleksey Vronsky (book and movie)
Vladimir Putin (trick question, to see if you’re paying attention)

Well, that baker’s dozen should be enough to keep you Googling for at least five minutes, which — if you’re anything like me — is about the limit of your patience with such nonsense.

But this little exercise did serve its purpose, which was to keep my mind occupied for a half hour or so trying to remember anything I have read or seen in the last 50 years — which, I have to admit, also becomes more challenging every day.

What a load of fun!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/12/25

As we await the verdicts and sentences for three members of the late Alexei Navalny’s legal team — now scheduled to be announced by the Russian court on January 17th — I have added them to the list of those political hostages of Vladimir Putin who do not deserve to be in prison in the first place.

They are (L-R, above): Igor Sergunin, Aleksei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev. Tried on politically-motivated charges of “extremism,” the only act of which they are guilty is having represented their client to the best of their ability.

In Putin’s view, however, their real crime was being associated with a man who dared to oppose him. And that, in today’s Russia, overrides any consideration of legality or morality.

So, once more, here is our list of those awaiting release from various Russian prisons and penal colonies:

David Barnes
Gordon Black
Marc Fogle
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Ksenia Karelina
Vadim Kobzev
Andrey Kuznechyk (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Igor Sergunin
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea)

And yet again, I wish them all continued courage, hope, and a speedy return home in this new year.

Godspeed.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/12/25

Even the name turns me off: “Influencer.” What makes you so special — you young, inexperienced, full-of-yourselves people who were just clever enough to figure out a way to earn money by convincing a large swath of the public that you had good taste and inside information . . . but not bright enough (or perhaps just too lazy) to carve out a legitimate career and get a real job?

Well, you “influencers” have never influenced me into buying a lot of stuff — much of it junk — that I don’t need and can’t really afford in today’s inflated economy. And you’ve never convinced me that you know what’s best for me, or what will make me happy, or bring fulfillment to my life.

Because I’m older and wiser than you are. I can make my own bad choices without your help, thank you.

And now, at last, I have read that your lot are on the way out . . . and I will sleep better, knowing that fewer vulnerable people will be falling into your web of attraction and deception.

“Rejecting the ‘haul’ culture of excessive shopping and promoting conscious consuming, the de-influencer movement is going mainstream — here’s why” . . . writes Megan Lawton of BBC (January 8, 2025).

That’s right — you are falling under the hammer of the “de-influencer movement,” thanks in large part to people like Diana Wiebe, who, back in 2019, was herself taken in by some useless product that seemed too good to be true . . . and was.

*. *. *

Ms. Wiebe now has more than 200,000 followers on TikTok, where her videos ask questions such as, “Did you want that product before it was marketed to you?” And she is just one part of a growing movement that rejects traditional influencer culture, and has more than a billion views (so far) on its #deinfluencing site on TikTok. [BBC, id.]

By sharing messages such as “fast fashion won’t make you stylish,” and “underconsumption is normal consumption,” the de-influencers believe they are helping to turn the tide of the “haul” culture.

Another former victim, Christina Mychaskiw, posts about her experiences on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, hoping to help others avoid “going broke”:

“Back in 2019, I was $120,000 CAD in debt through student loans, and I was still buying week after week. I hit rock bottom when I bought a pair of boots that cost more than my rent, even though I knew I couldn’t afford them.” [Id.]

She hears story after story from people who call in to her podcast, and says that “People don’t see the value in what they’re buying anymore. The promise of these items just isn’t living up to expectations. It feels like everything is getting more and more expensive, but lower quality and less satisfying.” [Id.]

Her advice: “Put the phone down, use what you already have to create fun looks — maybe you’ll realise [sic] what you have is good enough.” [Id.]

*. *. *

I’m not here to offer financial advice, or to tell you how you should live your life. Because those decisions are yours to make. And that is my whole point: Don’t let some stranger influence your decisions. They don’t know you, and they don’t care about you. All they want is to make money off of your unwise choices.

And if you’re one of those particularly soft-hearted people who will now start to worry that all of those influencers are going to be out of work . . . well, don’t. There are plenty of companies out there that are losing employees and looking for new hires. The out-of-work hucksters could become baristas at Starbuck’s, drivers for Amazon, or White House interns for the new administration in Washington (pretty much a revolving-door job). Not as much fun as virtual shopping, perhaps . . . but honest work.

Honest work??!!!

Now, there’s a concept that could use promoting.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/11/25

Following yesterday’s closed-door hearing on the “extremism” charges against three of the late Alexei Navalny’s lawyers, the court in the Vladimir region of Russia announced that a verdict — which had been expected to be issued on Friday — would be delayed until January 17th. [AFP, January 10, 2025.]

While it is universally expected that guilty verdicts will be forthcoming — as they are in all politically-motivated cases in Russia — the question of sentencing of Igor Sergunin, Aleksei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev remains open. The charges against them carry sentences of up to six years, and prosecutors in their cases have demanded minimum sentences of five years.

While Sergunin has pled guilty, Kobzev and Liptser have denied the charges. In his final statement to the court, Kobzev compared their situation to Soviet-era repression under dictator Joseph Stalin. [Id.]

Another former member of Navalny’s legal team, Olga Mikhailova, who has been living in exile, said that prosecutors are demanding “savage” sentences for lawyers who “honestly and professionally defended Navalny for many years.” [Id.]

And so the three political prisoners await word of their fate for at least another six days. And we wait with them.

In the meantime, their names will join the others on my list of Putin’s political hostages, which tragically keeps growing.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/11/25

No, no, no! Not that road! The one that diverged in the wood:

That’s better. Now, to continue . . .

I had chosen the shadowy one: the one that led to Russia. And what a summer it was!

There I was, just me with my 14 pieces of luggage and boxes at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, looking for someone named Vitold who I hoped would have a sign with my name on it. And by some miracle, I did find him: a large, rumpled, Bohemian-looking fellow of indeterminate age, who would be my driver, my gofer, my jack-of-all-trades, and my savior for the next few months.

Wisely, he had brought along a friend and a truck, and between them they wrestled all my baggage into the vehicle — although from the looks of the truck, I wasn’t sure it wouldn’t simply collapse under the weight. It shook, rattled and rolled all the way into the city and out the other side, to my new apartment/office on the far opposite outskirts of town. And after an endless night and half a day, I was finally “home.”

(Although the shops on the ground level and the cars in the front parking lot are a lot nicer in this picture than they were in 1993.)

And so began three months of KGB spies, the Russian “Mafia,” scary taxi drivers, undercover militia officers, child victims of Chernobyl, young women with peonies, new friends, and much, much more — followed by another year and a half back in the U.S. with our old friends Aksilenko and Shvets, the FBI, the Russian Embassy, the literary agent, a translator, the press . . . and a CIA turncoat named Aldrich Ames.

Descriptions of the events of May through August in Moscow have already been laid out in excruciating detail in Chapters 16-21 and 23 of this blog (and shared here on Facebook); and re-telling them now would just take up needless data space. So please forgive me if I simply refer you to those chapters for the fascinating, sometimes hair-raising, and frequently funny tales of:

Ch. 16 (8/26/24): Home, Sweet Home in Moscow
Ch. 17 (8/29/24): An Unholy Triumvirate: The Moscow Militia, the KGB, and the Russian Mafia
Ch. 18 (8/30/24): A Yankee Doodle Dandy in Moscow
Ch. 19 (9/5/24): Return to Kyiv
Ch. 20 (9/7/24): Last Tango in Moscow
Ch. 21 (9/9/24): The Bones in the Basement
Ch. 23 (9/11/24): Lenin, Come Home

*. *. *

And if you make it through all of that, and still want to know how it all came out, there are:

Ch. 24 (9/12/24): A Juggling Act
Ch. 25 (9/15/24): Once More, in February
Ch. 26 (9/16/24): Aftermath – Part I
Ch. 27 (9/17/24): Aftermath – Part II
. . . and finally . . .
Ch. 28 (9/20/24): Starting Over

*. *. *

Didn’t realize there was going to be homework, did you? Sorry.

But it’s a long, convoluted story — a cautionary tale, really, about the sometimes unexpected, unintended results of the choices we make in life. But not knowing can often bring about the grandest adventures, because if we could foretell the future, we might never have the courage to try anything new. Someone else said it before (and better than) I could:

“For all the sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’”
– John Greenleaf Whittier, Don’t Quit

*. *. *

And so, in the end, I took the road less traveled by . . . and it has, indeed, made all the difference.

Thanks for reading.

Brendochka
1/11/25

Конец
(The End)

*. *. *

Remember this guy? He was the founder and leader of the Wagner Group, an organization of Russian mercenaries utilized by Vladimir Putin to carry out his dastardly deeds in far-off lands such as Syria, Libya, Sudan, Niger, and the Central African Republic, among others . . . not the least of them being Ukraine, since Putin’s invasion in February of 2022.

Prigozhin felt that Putin’s military leaders in Ukraine weren’t pursuing his “special military operation” aggressively enough, so in the summer of 2023, he and some of his Wagner troops staged a revolt against Putin . . . a collossally stupid, if bizarrely courageous, thing to do.

The Wagner forces were halted before reaching Moscow, and there followed a period of several weeks in which Prigozhin’s whereabouts — and his future — were uncertain. But he appeared to have survived Putin’s wrath . . . until that fateful day in August of 2023, when his private plane mysteriously crashed somewhere north of Moscow, reportedly killing Prigozhin and several of his top associates, in addition to the plane’s crew.

You just don’t mess with Putin. Ever.

But despite the loss of its leader, the Wagner Group itself did not cease to exist. While a number of its members reportedly distanced themselves from the organization, those who remained were reorganized by Putin, renamed the Africa Corps, and reassigned wherever they were most useful to him . . . including in Ukraine, fighting alongside the Russian military.

And on January 4th of this brand-new year 2025, one of its members — 31-year-old Timur Praliev — was detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents while trying to cross the Rio Grande River from Mexico into the United States near the border town of Roma, Texas. He carried with him in a backpack two passports, cash . . . and a drone. [Carl Schreck, Mark Krutov, Mike Eckel and Ramazan Alpaut, RFE/RL, January 10, 2025.]

Initially charged by Border Patrol with illegally entering the U.S. — a federal misdemeanor — he pled guilty. He appeared before a judge at the federal courthouse in McAllen, Texas, on January 7th, where he stated (through an interpreter) that he was a citizen of Kazakhstan, and admitted to being a member of the Wagner Group.

Because he had been carrying both Russian and Kazakh passports, as well as US $4,000 and 60,000 pesos — and let’s not overlook that drone — there were concerns regarding his ties to the Wagner Group, and the federal prosecutor requested that Praliev be held for 15 days. The judge sentenced him on the illegal entry charge to time served, but ordered Praliev to remain in custody while U.S. authorities continue to investigate. [Billal Rahman, Newsweek, January 10, 2025.]

*. *. *

According to an online account published on Russian social media, a man by the name of Timur Praliev, and fitting the description of the suspect detained at the U.S.-Mexican border, had been the recipient of an award presented on December 12, 2024, by the Bashkortostan (Russia) branch of Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation — a group established by Vladimir Putin in 2023 to support combat veterans of the war in Ukraine. In the online post, the man was identified as a “former employee” of the Wagner Group. [RFE/RL, op.cit.]

Further investigation by RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty also indicates that they are one and the same person. [Id.]

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda McColgan is cited as saying during Praliev’s court appearance that the U.S. Government “is concerned about [the] safety of the community when this defendant is released” due to his affiliation with Wagner . . . “a group associated with political violence.” [Id.]

A U.S. magistrate judge has ordered Praliev to remain in federal custody. No immediate comment was received from the U.S. Attorney’s office for Southern Texas or from the regional office of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and his present location has not been made public. [Id.]

*. *. *

Needless to say, questions abound . . . questions to which we may never know all of the answers. For example, how did this man travel from Russia (or Kazakhstan) all the way to the Mexico-U.S. border? Through South America? Which countries? How did he make his way through Mexico without being detected?

And how did he expect to get into the United States with that drone? Not incidentally, what kind of drone was it, and what did he plan to do with it?

Even more importantly: Who sent him? With $4,000 in U.S. money, and nearly another $3,000 equivalent in pesos, odds are he was not here on his own.

And finally: How many more, just like him, are already here, or preparing to sneak across our borders? Why are we the only country in the free world that is accused of being racist for trying to control illegal entry onto our territory?

The United States was built by immigrants — legal immigrants — happily including my grandparents. But those people came to work, and grow, and find a better life for their children . . . not to destroy what had already been built here.

The hard question is: How do we remain the country that has always welcomed the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” while protecting the sanctity and security of our precious land?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/10/25

It appears that Alexei Navalny is not destined to rest in peace . . . not yet, at any rate. Because three of his lawyers, who were tried in secrecy in September of 2024 on “extremism” charges lodged against them the previous year, are being sentenced today. It is a foregone conclusion that they will be found guilty; the only question remaining to be answered is how long their prison sentences will be.

Imagine being a lawyer in any democratic country, and knowing that you might very well be held criminally liable simply for representing a client who had been found guilty of . . . well, of almost anything. I wonder how long it would take for all of the law schools to shut down for lack of students.

But three men who represented the late Alexei Navalny — Igor Sergunin, Aleksei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev — are being sentenced for exactly that. They have been accused of participating in an “extremist” organization — Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) — which had been labeled as extremist and banned in Russia in 2021. [RFE/RL, January 10, 2025.]

Investigators said that they used their “status” to convey messages between Navalny and his associates, thus enabling him to “conduct extremist activities from behind bars.” [Id.] The charges against them could result in sentences of up to six years; prosecutors have demanded prison terms of at least five years for each of the three.

Following Navalny’s unexplained death in a Russian penal colony nearly a year ago, two of his lawyers, Aleksandra Fedulova and Olga Mikhailova, fled Russia, as did his wife and children and other members of the FBK.

In today’s Russia — Vladimir Putin’s Russia — it has become the only way to remain honest, and survive.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/10/25

In the days before anyone even thought of being “politically correct,” there was a man named Christopher Columbus, who managed to talk Queen Isabella of Spain into financing his venture to find a new sea route to the Orient. Goodness knows what a load of malarkey he had to feed her in order for her to cough up the necessary funds, but — luckily for us — it worked.

We all — or at least those of us who paid attention in U.S. History class — know that Columbus has, correctly or not, long been credited with finding the “New World,” now known as the Americas.

We also know that the dummkopf really believed he was carving out that supposed new route to China. But that’s beside the point. The point is that, after six grueling months at sea, his three ships — the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria — made history by finally reaching land somewhere near the island now known as the Dominican Republic . . . thus proving that the Earth was indeed not flat.

Or something of the sort. (I was one of those who used to doze off in U.S. History, so don’t quote me on the details.)

But I did not know — and I’m willing to bet that you didn’t either, unless you read yesterday’s “This Day In History” — that old Chris wrote in his ship’s log on January 9, 1493, that the previous day he had spied three mermaids . . . and that they were “not half as beautiful as they are painted.” [“This Day In History,” history.com, Jauary 9, 2025.]

Well, aside from insulting all of mermaidhood (which would have been bad enough), it seems he also managed to denigrate the majority of human womanhood as well. Because it is now believed that what he actually saw were most likely manatees, dugongs, or something called Steller’s sea cows (which became extinct by the 1760s due to over-hunting).

And — while all women admittedly are not classically beautiful (except on the inside) — I can honestly say that I have never seen one of my fellow females who looked anything like a manatee, a dugong, or whatever a Steller’s sea cow looked like. And, on behalf of all of you ladies, girls, and old broads out there, let me unequivocally state that we are not amused.

Now, I think they’re actually pretty cute . . . for sea mammals. I especially like the smile on little Dougie Dugong. But quite frankly, I’d much rather be compared to a mermaid. I mean, honestly — who wouldn’t? Just look at that face, that hair, those . . . um . . . abs.

Of course, to give Columbus the benefit of the doubt, there may have been mitigating circumstances. The weather may not have been clear, or he may only have gotten a quick glimpse of the creatures from a distance.

And, come to think of it, I’ve never seen a portrait of Columbus’ wife or mother. So, in the end, perhaps . . . by comparison . . . ?

Uh . . . nope. No way. I prefer to think Columbus was simply near-sighted, and let it go at that.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/10/25