On Saturday, the White House announced that Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who were set to leave for Pakistan to undertake further negotiations with Iranian leaders, wouldn’t be going anywhere after all. It seemed that Iran’s chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, wouldn’t be there to meet with them.
He was, instead, on his way to St. Petersburg, Russia, for a meeting today with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
With his usual false bravado, Trump responded by telling Fox News:
“If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us. You know, there is a telephone. We have nice, secure lines. They know what has to be in the agreement. It’s very simple: They cannot have a nuclear weapon; otherwise, there’s no reason to meet.” [RFE/RL, April 27, 2026.]
But it appears that Tehran had already “hung up” on Washington.
These on-again-off-again “negotiations” between Iran’s seasoned professionals and Trump’s pair of poseurs are clearly going nowhere. Donald Trump, anticipating another Venezuelan cakewalk, started a war with a region about which he knows less than nothing, and without seeking the requisite consent of Congress or consulting any of his military, intelligence or diplomacy experts. It is a war that need never have been launched, if he hadn’t torn up the agreement that was already in place.
He knew not what he was doing then; and he hasn’t the foggiest notion of how to squirm out of it now without totally losing face.
But that’s what happens when you’re all ego and no substance.
The word “genius” is used here in the most sarcastic sense, of course. Because I am not speaking of anyone who might actually fit that description: not an Albert Einstein, a Marilyn Vos Savant, or a Leonardo da Vinci.
Rather, I refer to a bona fide idiot named Dana White: high school troublemaker; college dropout; former bouncer, bellhop and boxer; now multi-millionaire president and CEO of the mixed martial arts organization known as Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC); and good buddy of Donald Trump.
Dana White and Friend
Why do I call him an idiot? Because last night . . . as an invited guest at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel . . . when all hell broke loose as a shooter shot his way through a security checkpoint in an apparent attempt to kill members of the Trump administration . . . and as Secret Service and other law enforcement officers were ordering the 2,000+ attendees to get under the tables . . . Dana White stood his ground.
Not to confront the gunman, who never actually got as far as the ballroom where the event was being held. Oh, no . . . he was, by his own admission, an enthusiastic spectator, later telling reporters:
“All of a sudden, it just started getting noisy. Tables getting flipped over, guys running in with guns and they were screaming ‘Get down!’ I didn’t get down — it was fucking awesome. I literally took every minute of it in. It was a pretty crazy, unique experience . . . I thought the shooter was over by us or something.” [The Guardian, April 26, 2026.]
Right — it was “awesome” that yet another mentally-disturbed individual with access to deadly weapons had had all he could take of the world’s mayhem, and decided to try to put a stop to it.
“Awesome” that any number of those 2,000 people might have lost their lives last night.
“Awesome” that this is now the world we live in.
Soulmates
But to someone with the limited mental capacity and the total lack of empathy of Dana White, it is somehow “f*cking awesome,” simply because he is alive today, uninjured (thanks to law enforcement officers’ quick response), and still planning the scheduled UFC event at the White House on June 14th — supposedly to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary, but “coincidentally” on Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. (By the way, I can’t help wondering how much that little patriotic event is going to cost taxpayers.)
*. *. *
I am very relieved and happy that no one at that dinner was injured last night, and that the one officer who was shot was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
But I grieve for the fact that this is indeed the world we live in . . . a world where, as the old saying goes, the inmates are running the institution.
To the people of Pripyat and the surrounding regions of Ukraine, April 26, 1986, was the end of life as they had always known it. The rest of the world continued to exist; but for them, it was Armageddon . . . the Apocalypse . . . the End of Days.
For four decades, the surviving victims of the explosion at Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant have been suffering the effects of the long-term neglect and failures of the Soviet/Russian regime.
Pripyat, Ukraine – Before April 26, 1986: A Thriving City
Some — a few desperate, mostly elderly residents with nowhere else to go or simply too attached to their homes to leave — defied the authorities and either refused to leave or returned to live out their remaining years in the highly radioactive area they had once loved; the majority were relocated to begin life over elsewhere. How the handful of returnees have managed to survive is beyond my comprehension.
Some Who Returned
For the most part, the area around Chernobyl is a wasteland, expected to remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years: a visual reminder to the next 100 or more generations — if the Earth survives that long — of mankind’s failure to care for the only planet we have.
Pripyat Today: A Ghost Town
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I have previously written about my 1993 visit to a hospital for child victims of Chernobyl in Kyiv — seven years after the explosion — and the short-term effect on my health of breathing that air for just a few days. The children I met then — those who survived — would be approaching middle age by now, likely having spent their entire lives battling various disabling illnesses. To them, I wish better days. And to those who didn’t make it to adulthood, know that your little faces are permanently etched in my memory, and that I wish you eternal peace.
To the others — the rescue workers and clean-up crews who lost their lives as a result of the event known to the world simply as “Chernobyl” — I commend you for your bravery and your sacrifice.
As always when there has been neither the bad news of a recent arrest of a dissident, nor the joy that comes with the release of one or more prisoners, I find myself torn between relief on the one hand and disappointment on the other. This has been one of those weeks, and as usual, I’m trying to remain optimistic.
But even on the no-news days, we continue our watch over the thousands of political prisoners still incarcerated in Russia and elsewhere. Here again is the list of those known, which sadly remains only a fraction of the total:
Prisoners of War:
The 20,000+ Kidnapped Ukrainian Children The People of Ukraine
Immigrant Detainees in Russia:
Migrants from the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
Endangered Exiles:
Pavel “Pasha” Talankin Mikita Losik Yulia Navalnaya Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents
Political Prisoners:
In Afghanistan:
Mahmoud Habibi (Afghan-American) Paul Overby (American, missing since 2018)
Andrei Chapiuk Uladzimir Labkovich Andrzej Poczobut Marfa Rabkova Valiantsin Stafanovic Yuras Zyankovich
In Georgia:
Mzia Amaglobeli
In Russia:
The “Crimea 8”: — Oleg Antipov — Artyom Azatyan — Georgy Azatyan — Aleksandr Bylin — Roman Solomko — Artur Terchanyan — Dmitry Tyazhelykh — Vladimir Zloba
James Scott Rhys Anderson (British) Aleksandr Andreyev David Barnes (American) Gordon Black (American) Hayden Davies (British) Anastasia Dyudyaeva Antonina Favorskaya Konstantin Gabov Robert Gilman (American) Stephen James Hubbard (American) Sergey Karelin Timur Kishukov Vadim Kobzev Darya Kozyreva Artyom Kriger Michael Travis Leake (American) Aleksei Liptser Grigory Melkonyants Nika Novak Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea) Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler) Sofiane Sehili (French) Igor Sergunin Dmitry Shatresov Robert Shonov Grigory Skvortsov Eugene Spector (American) Joseph Tater (American, disappeared) Laurent Vinatier Robert Romanov Woodland (American)
In keeping with today’s Shakespeare theme, I turned for inspiration to one of his lighter works, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” wherein we have two happy couples: Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius —Demetrius having initially been in love with Hermia, then being enchanted by the local fairies (mythical creatures, probably better referred to today as “sprites”) to turn his romantic attentions to Helena.
You see? I told you Shakespeare was fun.
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)
Very briefly, everyone’s favorite protagonist in this play — the mischievous sprite Puck — spies on the frolicking foursome as they engage in an argument over something trivial and nonsensical. And, clever fellow that he is, he sums up their behavior in just a few words, which you have doubtless heard before:
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” – Shakespeare, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene 2
Puck (Photo courtesy of Shakespeare and Wine Society)
* Petard: A small cone-shaped or rectangular metal bomb filled with gunpowder used in 16th-century warfare to blow up doors, gates or walls.
If only Donald Trump would read, he might save himself from making a lot of really stupid mistakes. And I would advise him to start with . . . well, first, the U.S. Constitution and the Holy Bible (both Testaments, please) . . . but then proceed directly to Shakespeare.
Shakespeare: Duel Between Hamlet and Laertes
For example, there is Hamlet. Everyone has heard of it, but not everyone has had the patience or the desire to read it. Admittedly, the old English vocabulary and writing style are not easy. But it is filled with duplicitous schemes, double-crosses, triple-crosses, murder most foul, people hiding behind curtains, and a couple of characters named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who — though their names sound like a 1920s New York vaudeville act — themselves die in a double-cross by the self-same Hamlet in the act of saving himself from a plot by Claudius . . . And so on.
Good stuff, huh?
The Bard gave us so many sayings and expressions that have become everyday parts of the English lexicon, such as when — also in Hamlet — Polonius tells his son, Laertes:
“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” – Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 3
Excellent advice, to be sure. But oh, the irony! Later in the tragedy, Hamlet kills Polonius; Laertes challenges Hamlet to a duel, wherein he uses a poison-tipped sword with which to kill Hamlet in revenge for his father’s death; the swords somehow get switched; and Laertes is killed when he is jabbed by his own sword . . . thus becoming the victim of his own evil scheme: that is, “hoisted with his own [metaphorical] petard.”
And Hamlet, later having a chat with his mother, has this to say — obviously not only exhibiting a total lack of remorse, but indeed plotting further mischief:
“Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged, They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way And marshal me to knavery. Let it work, For ‘tis the sport to have the engineer Hoist with his own petard; and ‘t shall go hard But I will delve one yard below their mines And blow them at the moon. O, tis most sweet When in one line two crafts directly meet.” – Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene 4
The ultimate triple-cross. Beautiful!
It gets even more complicated than that, because apparently Laertes doesn’t die immediately (picture Arnold Schwarzenegger bellowing “I’m ba-a-a-ack!”), and somehow Hamlet is also killed by a poison-tipped sword, his mother is done in, and . . . well, you get the idea. It’s a bloodbath.
For those who haven’t read Shakespeare but are now tempted by my descriptions, there is actually a “Shakespeare for Dummies” to get you started before you delve into the real thing. His plays really are rip-roaring nail-biters that put Agatha Christie, Stephen King, and J.K. Rowling in the shade.
*. *. *
“But what?” — I hear you ask — “does any of this have to do with Donald Trump?” Well, other than to point out what he’s been missing all these years by remaining under-educated, it is also a cautionary tale for his future, as well as the futures of his many sycophants and followers, as they continue on their mad rampage of destruction and revenge against nearly everyone — apparently overlooking the possibility that their victims or their heirs might one day decide to turn the tables and seek their own revenge.
Basically, it tells us that . . . well, let’s see now: “Revenge is sweet”; “what goes around comes around”; “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”; “paybacks are hell”; and the ever-popular, “look out for the guy behind the curtain!”
And I would throw in this one — a play on the famous words of Paul Revere (according to Longfellow’s poem) as he warned that the British troops were on their way:
“The Democrats are coming! The Democrats are coming!”
“The British are coming! The British are coming!” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882)
One final thought: In accordance with 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2381, there is no statute of limitations on treason in the United States.
Elie Wiesel knew more than most people about not giving up in the face of unimaginable adversity. Born in Romania into a Jewish family, he survived the Holocaust of World War II despite having been imprisoned in both Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
He eventually came to the United States, becoming a citizen in 1963. His lifelong focus was on educating the world about the truth of the Holocaust, writing 57 books in both French and English. He was ultimately the recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal, the French Legion of Honour, the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Order of the Star of Romania, and an honorary knighthood.
And he warned us of the dangers of remaining neutral in times of tyranny and terror:
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.
Elie Wiesel (1928 – 2016)
Elie Wiesel was a man of peace who would be horrified at what is happening in the world today, hearing the unmistakable echoes of the years of his youth. And he would remind us, quietly but forcefully, that we cannot afford to remain indifferent.
As though Poland hasn’t suffered enough invasions in the past . . .
Imagine going into town — whatever city or town is closest to you — and seeing this on the main street or in the market square:
“To market, to market, to buy a fat pig”
. . . or by the river walk:
A Family Outing in Warsaw, Poland – Present Time
In these pictures, they seem to be cohabiting fairly well, the boars not bothering the humans (and vice-versa). But they really don’t belong there. So the Polish government has taken action, and sent an animal control team out to shoo them back to their natural environment. Thus, the next sight you might see would likely be one or two of these guys:
And frankly, I don’t know which one I would find more disturbing. But that’s just me. I love animals; but anything created by Artificial Intelligence that is clearly smarter than I am . . . well, not so much.
For whatever reason, Warsaw has recently been invaded by the beasties, with reports totaling some 3,000 sightings — 20 times the number since 2020. In 2025, there were a reported 121 attacks on people, and 341 of the porkers were killed by cars. (I couldn’t find any information on whether the drivers were allowed to keep the meat . . . or would even want to.)
As Magdalena Mlochowska of the Green Warsaw organization pointed out:
“The presence of wild boars in densely built-up areas . . . poses a real threat to the health and lives of residents.” [BBC, April 22, 2026.]
Uh . . . yeah, I get it.
I see her point. So in this case, I believe I would have to opt in favor of the skinny metallic guys, and not the four-legged ones with the huge snouts, lethal-looking hooves, and really sharp teeth.
There was no mention of what is thought to be causing this sudden mass migration — other than, perhaps, the irresistible fragrance of those amazing Polish kielbasa, pierogi, and golabki.
Or more likely, the Warsaw region, like so many metropolitan areas around the world, is suffering the consequences of urban sprawl and its trickle-down effect on the local wildlife as they are evicted from the surrounding forests . . . which is a crying shame.
If you needed further proof that we are destroying our planet, there it is, folks.
This is going to be quick, because I’m dealing with a lot of family stuff right now, and will be for the next several weeks. So my writing may slack off somewhat, especially on fairly quiet news days. (Is there such a thing?)
But I’m still here, and still trying to keep up with the world’s madness. Hopefully you’ll hear more from me tomorrow. For now, though . . .
A few days ago, Pope Leo XIV, while on an official visit to Cameroon, offered a comment that, while not mentioning any names, was suspiciously relevant to recent exchanges between himself and Donald Trump:
“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Pope Leo XIV
Trump, as we all know, had posted an AI image of himself as Jesus, which created an international furor that he clearly had not anticipated. So he took that post down, offering no apology.
But he wasn’t finished. He replaced the first image with this captioned one:
“The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!!”
And yesterday, he participated in a nationwide event called “America Reads the Bible,” organized by a group known as Christians Engaged: a “nonprofit organization committed to discipling Americans on biblical worldview and their responsibilities as citizens to pray, vote, and engage for the wellbeing of our nation.”
He did not appear at the event, which was held at the Museum of the Bible in Washington. Instead, his reading was taped in advance at the White House, “filmed on two cameras that were edited together.” [Max Matza, BBC, April 21, 2026.]
Promoting the Gospel
Presumably, that was the only way to ensure that he wouldn’t go off during a live broadcast on one of his famous tangents about his magnificent ballroom, his Sharpie pens, or his willingness to wipe out an entire civilization.
I did not watch the pseudo-religious spectacle; I have better things to do with my time, like flossing my teeth, or cleaning a toilet. But I couldn’t refrain from commenting on the program’s hypocrisy, its unconstitutionality, and its obvious bigotry toward all religions other than the Christian faiths.
The Blog About Everything … and Sometimes Nothing 