Yesterday, when addressing the inaugural meeting of his “Board of Peace” in Washington, Donald Trump made a Freudian slip. In speaking of the future of the Board, he said, “Someday I won’t be here . . .”
Much has been written lately about Trump’s apparently declining health, and maybe he has secretly been contemplating his inevitable demise, as we all do at some point. After all, he is not a young man.
So perhaps he should consider the words of Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, who wrote:
“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.”
– Marcus Aurelius, “The Emperor’s Handbook”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 A.D.) … and Horse
Though sadly, there are some whose souls are so dark that even the sun would have difficulty reaching them.
One dictionary definition of “mafia,” with a lower-case “m,” is:
“ . . . a popular attitude of hostility to legal restraint and to the law, often manifesting itself in criminal acts.”
I’d say that’s close enough for government work.
Inaugural Meeting – Washington, D.C., February 19, 2026
In this case, the governments to which I refer are the 47 (mostly autocratic) nations that sent representatives to the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump’s brand-new “Board of Peace” in Washington yesterday. While Israel was represented, no Palestinian was in attendance. Also notably absent were many European and other Western allies who have expressed concern about the purpose and scope of the Board’s initiative.
Trump told the meeting that nations had already contributed $7 billion to a Gaza reconstruction fund for work to begin once Hamas has been disarmed. Contributors included Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Uzbekistan. He also said that the U.S. would give $10 billion to the Board, though it was not clear where the money would come from or what it would be earmarked for. [Christina Anagnostopoulos, et al., Reuters, February 19, 2026.]
He added that the United Nations will contribute $2 billion for humanitarian assistance, and —rather incongruously — that FIFA has said it would raise $75 million for soccer-related projects in Gaza. [Id.]
Oh, goody! The people of Gaza are desperate for food, water, medical care, shelter — the basic necessities of existence — but let’s give them soccer to take their minds off of their misery.
Gaza Strip – Present Time
In his remarks, Trump characteristically painted a glowing picture for the future of his newest undertaking, telling the assembly:
“This is the mot prestigious board ever put together. You know, I’ve seen some great corporate boards. I’ve seen some great boards, period. It’s peanuts compared to this board.” [Michele Kelemen and Aya Batrawy, NPR, February 19, 2026.]
Then he continued:
“Someday I won’t be here, the United Nations will be, I think, is going to be much stronger. The Board of Peace is going to almost be looking over the United Nations and making sure it runs properly.” [Id.]
King of the World
Perhaps in response to recent expressions of concern that he might be attempting to supplant the role of the United Nations, he added that the Board would be working “very closely” with the U.N. — though it sounds more as though he expects the U.N. to be working closely with him.
*. *. *
It’s early days for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, and it remains to be seen what direction they will take from here. In the meantime, the billions of dollars already contributed will be . . . doing what? Sitting in a bank in Qatar? In whose name? Or perhaps it will be used as start-up funding for son-in-law Jared Kushner’s “New Gaza” development plan, as presented last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
You know . . . the one the people of Gaza won’t be able to afford to live in.
He appeared in Geneva on Tuesday — seemingly out of nowhere — to take the lead for the Russian side in the Ukraine peace talks.
His name was Vladimir Medinsky, and I wondered who he was and what he was doing there, heading a delegation that still included two former lead negotiators: Kirill Dmitriev, and Admiral Igor Kostyukov, Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GRU), who had led the earlier talks in Abu Dhabi . . . as well as a Deputy Foreign Minister and a Deputy Defense Minister.
Vladimir Medinsky
His earlier involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict dated back to talks held in Istanbul in the early days of the invasion, in March-April of 2022, and included some of last year’s talks as well. But his name has not been at the forefront of the media reports. So I did a little digging.
His Wikipedia biography identifies him as an historian with an education in English and journalism at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO); a former posting as Minister of Culture; a stint in the State Duma in the early 2000s; a present place as a member of Putin’s “ideological clan”; and a politically “statist” and “ultraconservative” philosophy, with a strong emphasis on a return to Russian “traditional values.” From that, I could only wonder anew at his relevance to peace negotiations.
The second day of talks brought no further clarity, when his only post-meeting comment was that they had been “difficult but businesslike,” and that further meetings would follow. [RFE/RL, February 18, 2026.]
My first clue came with this morning’s news reports, one of which quoted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — normally a model of realistic but diplomatic composure — as calling the Geneva talks “historical shit.” [Mike Eckel, RFE/RL, February 19, 2026.]
Well, that snapped my eyelids open and sent my mind into overdrive. So I grabbed my reading glasses and read on.
Aside from the dry biographical information, it seems Mr. Medinsky has been known — at least in Russia — as the author of a series of supposedly best-selling non-fiction history books . . . although their historical value has been questioned by experts. As reported:
“Among his more eyebrow-raising statements: The 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which divided up Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, ‘deserves a monument’; anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia was ‘greatly exaggeraged’; and the Soviet Union never occupied the Baltic states, it just ‘incorporated’ them. [Id.]
He has been accused by Russian academics of plagiarism; he has overseen the revisionist rewriting of history textbooks used in the Russian schools; and he attempted, in the final volume of his book series, to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine by writing:
“The West became fixated with destabilizing the situation inside Russia. The aim was not even hidden: to dismember Russia and to get control over its resources.” [Id.]
While suggesting in a news interview that video-streaming service Netflix was a U.S. government tool for mind control, he conversely claimed rap and hip-hop music as being uniquely Russian art forms.
And it is believed he was central to the drafting in July 2021 of an essay released by the Kremlin under Putin’s name, titled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” [http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181] — a revisionist theory of history that Putin has consistently used to justify his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. [Id.]
Still, what was he doing at Geneva? Earlier this year, when trilateral talks were again held, that time led on the Russian side by the head of the GRU (military intelligence), the Ukrainian officials were delighted. Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said at the time, “These are different people, and there were no more pseudo-historical lectures” — obviously referring to Medinsky’s tendency to propagandize and sermonize.
So when Medinsky’s return to the table was announced just days prior to the February 17th meeting, experts agreed that it was not a good sign. And it appears they were right.
“Earlier, Sky News analyst Michael Clarke called Medinsky a ‘nasty piece of work’ with a deranged view of Russian history, who likes to lecture everyone. He ‘swears at people, he annoys them, he angers them.’ His goal, according to Clarke, is to make others walk away and later say the negotiations failed because they themselves abandoned them.” [Olena Mukhina, Euromaidan, February 18, 2026.]
It has now been reported that Medinsky spent considerable time in Geneva doing exactly that — while Moscow’s key demand of the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the entire Donetsk Oblast remains unchanged.
And there is your answer: Vladimir Medinsky, an “aide” to Putin with no official governmental position, was a diversionary tactic — what the Russians call an “otvlekayushchiy manevr,” or “red herring” — sent, not merely to reinforce Putin’s alleged historical claims to Ukrainian territory, but also to sabotage any serious attempts at genuine peace negotiations.
When I need a chuckle, I can usually find it in one of several places: a British sitcom; whatever Karoline Leavitt said in the day’s White House press briefing; or the writings of Ogden Nash, Erma Bombeck, or British author and journalist Ambrose Bierce.
Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914?)
Bierce won the coin toss today, for his combination of irony, literacy, and totally irreverent humor. For your amusement (I hope), I give you his definition of “Man”:
“MAN, n. An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth and Canada.”
– Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary
Clearly, Bierce is on my list of people from the past I would hope some day to meet in Heaven.
The first-ever American Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, has announced that the Vatican will not be represented at Donald Trump’s inaugural meeting of his “Board of Peace” in Washington later today, expressing concern about some points of the Board’s plan, and stating that there are critical issuesto be resolved. [Christopher Lamb, CNN, February 18, 2026.]
The Vatican has joined Britain, France, Norway, Greece, New Zealand, and others in declining Trump’s invitation. (Italy and the European Union have said they plan to attend as observers only — an excellent idea, so that the rest of us will know what really took place.)
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, told reporters that one of the Vatican’s concerns “is that at the international level it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted.” He added that the Vatican would not “participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States.” [Id.]
Speaking for the White House, Karoline Leavitt said:
“I don’t think that peace should be partisan or political or controversial. And of course, the administration wants all those who were invited to join the board of peace to join. This is a legitimate organization where there are tens of member countries from around the world, and we think that’s an unfortunate decision.” [Id.]
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
Well, what did they — Trump and his White House minions — expect? They started out trumpeting (pun intended) their “legitimate organization” as a coalition to deal with the situation in Gaza. Suddenly, it was being reinvented as a much larger peacemaking group tasked with settling conflicts throughout the world — ignoring the existence of something called the United Nations. Its chairman would be Donald Trump, who would have veto power and the mandate to choose his own eventual successor. And the price of permanent membership would be a billion dollars (or more, from those seeking favor), to be deposited into a fund managed by . . .
Come, now . . . do you really have to ask?
Not surprisingly, most of the first countries to sign up were autocracies, because they recognized that this “Board of Peace” had nothing whatsoever to do with peace, and everything to do with power and control.
And the Pope also recognizes it for what it is: another desperate grab at immortality by a malignant narcissist who cannot face the fact that his time — politically, if not physically — is rapidly dwindling.
It will be interesting to see what happens at today’s meeting. But in the meantime, a huge thank you to Pope Leo XIV — a good and wise man who does not allow his nationality to interfere with his rationality.
With the future of an entire nation at stake, the second day of talks ending after just two hours is not a good sign.
Russia’s chief negotiator for this round of talks in Geneva — former Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky — acknowledged that the brief meeting had been “difficult but businesslike,” and that further meetings would follow. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “too early” to assess the results of the talks. And there was no immediate comment at all from the U.S. side.
But in an online chat with journalists, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was more forthcoming, saying that “all three sides were constructive on the military track [of the talks]. The military basically understands how to monitor a cease-fire and the end of the war, if there is political will. They have basically agreed on pretty much everything there. Monitoring will definitely involve the American side. On the political track there was dialogue — they agreed to move forward and to continue. I did not hear the same level of progress there as on the military side. But . . . my group said they cannot report everything to me over the phone.” [RFE/RL, February 18, 2026.]
Following yesterday’s six-hour session, White House envoy Steve Witkoff said in a post on X that there had been “ . . . meaningful progress. Both parties agreed to update their respective leaders and continue working towards a deal.” [Id.]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
In other words, it’s been two days of the same old same old.
The problem? Vladimir Putin’s continued intransigence on the two most vital issues in terms of Ukraine’s sovereignty and future security: territorial claims and security guarantees.
Putin’s strategy is simple: As long as he has the military means, he will continue to bombard the Ukrainian civilian population and infrastructure until there is nothing left: no further support from the West, no way to continue on their own, and no will to go on.
It is up to the West — Europe and the United States — to stop him. As long as we stand behind the Ukrainian people, they will continue to fight . . . not only for their own country, but because they also understand that if they fall, the rest of Europe will not be far behind. And we cannot let that happen.
The Library of Congress’ archives contain a collection of letters and other documents, known as “The Hamilton Papers,” written by one of America’s Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton: signatory to the U.S. Constitution, first Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, and author of the Federalist Papers.
Alexander Hamilton (1755 or 1757 – 1804)
One such letter includes the following remarkably prescient warning:
“When a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits — despotic in his ordinary demeanour — known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty — when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity — to join in the cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion — to flatter and fall in with all the non sense [sic] of the zealots of the day — It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”
So even then, it seems, there were such people. Unfortunately, there still are.
In Soviet times, before Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms known as glasnost and perestroika, the ordinary citizens of Russia and the 14 other Soviet Socialist Republics only knew as much about the outside world as their government masters allowed them to know. Their TV and print news sources — Pravda, Izvestia,TASS, and the like — were state-owned and controlled; their access to foreigners was limited and considered risky. They accepted the daily ration of propaganda without question, because they had nothing to compare it against.
Those programs of “openness” and “restructuring” represented a sea change in the lives of the Russian people. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, westerners flooded into Russia bearing previously unimagined business and educational opportunities, and the technology to implement them. With them also came western media outlets, and — at the dawn of the new millennium — the internet and social media.
And suddenly, everyone had a computer and a smart phone. Not only were they aware of what was happening outside of their borders; they were part of it. And they took to it like babies to their first taste of apple sauce.
The problem was that Gorbachev was gone . . . his liberal successor, Boris Yeltsin, was gone . . . and Vladimir Putin was now in the Kremlin. And all of the reforms — the openness and restructuring — of the two previous administrations were anathema to him and to his messianic belief that the collapse of the Soviet Union had been the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century, and that it was his destiny to restore it to its former glory.
But how does one do that in the largest country in the world, with a population of nearly 150 million people in an area spanning eleven times zones? Well, first, he cut off their access to the outside. One by one, he pushed through Parliament new laws restricting freedom of speech. Next he began arresting people and shutting down media for violating those laws.
He also killed off a few of his most popular, outspoken dissidents, including Anna Politkovskaya, Boris Nemtsov, and Aleksei Navalny.
(L-R) Anna Politkovskaya, Aleksei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov
Then, on February 24, 2022, he invaded Ukraine, giving him a new excuse for strengthening the already onerous laws, and creating an exodus of both western enterprises and the few remaining independent Russian media outlets.
But there were still all of those pesky cell phones, and millions of people with access to Google, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and the like. Suddenly pulling the plug on all of them could cause a massive revolt. So he began limiting access gradually, while simultaneously building a state-controlled platform named “Max” to take the place of all the others.
People posting regularly on YouTube and others have already complained of periodic outages — including two emigre families I’ve been following: the Canadian Feenstras and the Australian Pulleys. And on Thursday, February 12th, it was confirmed that instant messenger WhatsApp has been blocked completely.
Even Telegram — used by millions in Russia including the military, top-level public officials, state media services, and government bodies such as communications regulator Roskomnadzor and the Kremlin itself — has become the victim of restricted access by Russian authorities.
Enter: “Max.”
“Max” (with what’s-his-name)
It’s been in the works for a while, but now it seems to be close to becoming the only choice — if you can call it a choice — as explained by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:
“Max is an affordable alternative on the market for citizens, a developing national messenger. Regarding the blocking of WhatsApp, our authorities did indeed state that the decision was made and implemented due to the corporation’s unwillingness to comply with the law.” [Sophie Tanno and Anna Chernova, CNN, February 12, 2026.]
WhatsApp confirmed the move, saying:
“Today the Russian government attempted to fully block WhatsApp in an effort to drive people to a state-owned surveillance app. Trying to isolate over 100 million people from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia.” [Mike Eckel, RFE/RL, February 13, 2026.]
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov
Alena Epifanova, a cyber researcher at the German Council on Foreign Relations, noted that this is the first time regulators have moved to effectively delete websites en masse from the Russian domain system, saying:
“It’s unfortunately not surprising. It was just a matter of time. [Regulators] move to block everything that they can’t control and take another step toward a sovereign Internet. … Max is part of the puzzle. They introduced it, but no one was going to use it. As long as you have alternatives that work, as long as you have alternatives that your friends and family use, people won’t move to another platform. Therefore, they have to block Telegram, they have to block WhatsApp to get people to use Max.” [Id.]
And Pavel Durov — the Russian-born entrepreneur who created Telegram and chose to abandon it and live in exile rather than submit to Putin’s restrictions — agreed:
“Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship.” [Id.]
Pavel Durov
So, with the compliments of the Kremlin, “Max” welcomes his comrades back to the 1960s. The 21st century was fun while it lasted.
The location is different: Geneva, rather than Abu Dhabi. But the faces at the table are pretty much the same; the rhetoric hasn’t changed; and nothing is resolved after the first day of talks, while Vladimir Putin continues to batter Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the midst of one of the coldest winters on record.
Geneva, Switzerland – February 17, 2026
Following six hours of talks described by a source in the Russian delegation as “very tense,” Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, posted on social media:
“Discussions focused on practical issues and the mechanics of possible solutions. For today, both the political and military blocs have completed their work.” [RFE/RL, February 17, 2026].
So . . . nothing.
As the talks began, the previous night had seen a dozen regions across Ukraine deluged by some 400 drones and nearly 30 missiles, killing at least three people. At the same time, Russian air defenses reported repelling more than 150 Ukrainian drones, and one drone strike setting fire to a Russian oil refinery.
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky said in a video address that his country is ready to cease strikes against Russia in accordance with an earlier U.S. proposal:
“We don’t need war . . . [we are] defending our state, our independence. We are also ready to quickly move towards a worthy agreement to end the war. The question is only for the Russians: what do they want?” [Hafsa Khalil and Laura Gozzi, BBC, February 17, 2026.]
Volodymyr Zelensky
*. *. *
The talks are scheduled to continue tomorrow. But expectations for any meaningful progress are low. Contrary to my earlier hopes, the U.S. is still relying on Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to lead the American negotiating team, while on the eve of today’s talks, Donald Trump himself had this bit of presidential gibberish to offer reporters:
“We have big talks. It’s gonna be very easy. Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you.” [RFE/RL, op.cit.]
“Quiet, piggy!”
And the Russian delegation has added a new face: Putin aide, former Minister of Culture, and revisionist historian Vladimir Medinsky.
Trained in international relations at the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), Medinsky has been characterized by some as “statist” and “ultraconservative.”Forbes has described him as a member of Putin’s “ideological clan.” He supports such proposals as the erection of statues of Stalin in places where the majority of local people approve, and the restoration of historic, pro-Soviet place names (such as Leningrad and Stalingrad). [Wikipedia biography.]
Vladimir Medinsky
In 2013, while Medinsky was serving as Minister of Culture, the Ministry proposed an updated cultural policy calling for “a rejection of the principles of tolerance and multiculturalism,” emphasizing Russian “traditional values,” and cautioning against “pseudo-art” that might be at variance with those values. [Id.]
Enough said. The addition of Medinsky to the negotiating team, while of uncertain value to the peace talks themselves, is clearly indicative of the direction in which Putin is not only leading Russia, but would immediately force upon the citizens of any Ukrainian territory that may end up under his control.
Welcome to Stalinism.102, students.
There is still tomorrow’s session in Geneva to anticipate, but sadly without a great deal of enthusiasm. Still, we hope for some progress toward a ceasefire, at the very least.
In general, I have avoided commenting on the contents of the Epstein files, as I prefer not to wallow in slime. My main area of concern with the files is the blatant, illegal cover-ups being revealed at the highest levels of government and private industry as more files become available.
But I was recently touched by the story of the two adult daughters of former Prince Andrew, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and the implications of the ongoing revelations for the families of those individuals who ultimately will prove to have been complicit in Epstein’s heinous activities.
Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice
Indications are that they believed — or wanted desperately to believe — their father when he denied the extent of his relationship with Epstein and his cohort, Ghislaine Maxwell. Now, with references in the files to their mother, Sarah Ferguson, and to their parents’ having mentioned the daughters’ names countless times in communications with Epstein, they can only feel betrayed.
As stated by Russell Myers, the royal editor of Britain’s The Mirror newspaper:
“It’s incredibly distressing for both young women to see themselves mentioned so freely by their parents to a convicted sex offender.” [Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN, February 16, 2026.]
A Family in Crisis
The files even indicate that Ferguson took her daughters to visit Epstein just days after his release from prison in 2009. Aged 19 and 21 at the time, they were likely told they were simply visiting a friend of their parents. According to royal author Robert Jobson:
“They are pretty torn because they believed [their father]. Just like the late Queen and Charles, Andrew told them all the same story — that he had done nothing wrong. My understanding is they feel pretty duped by the whole thing.” [Simon Perry, People.com, February 5, 2026.]
And it doesn’t end with the royal family. Each and every one of the sick individuals who participated in Epstein and Maxwell’s degenerate circle of hell, or knew what was going on and chose to enable it by keeping silent, has someone — a spouse, children, parents, siblings, close friends — who will be similarly affected by the fallout.
But I suppose it would be too much to hope that anyone who could treat innocent children as pieces of meat — no more than flesh-and-blood objects of their perverted desires — might at any time have given a single thought to their own families. That would be attributing to them a modicum of decency they obviously do not possess.
For the guilty ones — when they are finally identified, tried and convicted — there is no punishment severe enough.
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