The machines have taken over my iPad, and stolen my blog. I haven’t been able to retrieve it, re-download the blog site, or sync with my phone — which, through some miracle, has retained everything, thus at least saving me from thoughts of suicide.
But trying to compose a full-length post without a keyboard would take forever and drive me over the edge. So until I can solve the problem, brendochka.com will be quieter than usual.
Or maybe I’ll try my laptop later. Right now, I’m too frustrated to do much of anything. Except maybe reach for the Häagen-Dazs.
And then to sleep, perchance to dream. So for now . . .
It has been heartening — and reminiscent of the anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s — to see the American people coming together to protest the excesses of a presidential administration that has become increasingly fascistic by the day.
And it has come as a tremendous relief to note that yesterday’s widespread protests were so successful . . . not only in scope, but in their peaceful, patriotic nature.
San Diego, California – June 14, 2025
Yet even within the mostly well-reasoned arguments of the anti-Trump movement, there have been a number of calls for impeachment — one even issued by none other than Elon Musk (though he quickly retracted it, admitting he had gone too far).
And those suggestions of impeachment worry me . . . not because they are unwarranted, but because I believe that is the last thing this country needs, for a number of reasons.
To begin with, it is unlikely that the present Congress — with a Republican majority in both houses — would be likely to convict. The entire disruptive exercise will have been a waste of time and effort, and would only have given Trump further cause to crow about his professed indestructibility.
The Smirk
But even more disturbing, to my mind, is what we would be facing if impeachment were unexpectedly to result in conviction, and Trump were removed from office. Unless we could somehow also impeach and convict the next three people in the line of succession, we would be stuck with:
Vice President JD VanceSpeaker of the House of Representatives, Mike JohnsonPresident Pro Tempore of the Senate, 91-year-old Chuck Grassley
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Now, someone tell me that’s not just a little disturbing. To me, it’s right at the top of the “be careful what you wish for” category.
But that doesn’t mean we have to survive another three and a half years of the erosion of all that makes this country great. Our courts are doing their best to maintain the rule of law, and must be pressed to continue on course. The Supreme Court, however heavily weighted to the conservative side, must also be made to realize the urgency of the situation and reminded of its mandate: that is, to uphold the laws and the Constitution of the United States, without bias or political consideration.
Finally, there is Congress. In less than a year, we will be in the throes of mid-term elections that will determine the balance of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. And that is where our power — the power of the people — comes into play.
It is up to us to choose, and choose wisely, who will represent our interests in the coming years. And that means we must educate ourselves as to the histories, political records, and characters of the candidates — of both parties — and not merely base our selections on campaign promises. We’ve all seen how much those are worth!
Promises, Promises
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In short, we must keep up the fight to keep America free . . . to keep America strong . . . and to keep America, America. I think the person holding this sign in one of yesterday’s protests said it rather well:
His story first came to my attention back in September 2024, when a woman identifying herself on Facebook as the sister of American Stephen James Hubbard wrote that her 72-year-old brother, a retired school teacher who had been living in Izyum, Ukraine, for some ten years, had been kidnapped by Russian forces in 2022 and was being held on charges of fighting as a mercenary on behalf of Ukraine.
Stephen James Hubbard
At first, all that was known was that a hearing on Hubbard’s case had been scheduled in Moscow for October 3, 2024. But it was soon learned that his trial had actually begun on September 27th, and was scheduled to continue on October 3rd. If convicted of the charges against him, he could receive a sentence of seven to fifteen years in prison . . . at his age, and under the harsh conditions of life in a Russian penal colony, a virtual life sentence.
On October 5th, the Moscow court announced that the closed-door trial had resulted in Hubbard’s admission of guilt, and that — upon the request of prosecutors, allegedly in deference to Hubbard’s age — he had been sentenced to the minimum seven years, to be served in a maximum-security penal colony.
And then he vanished.
On Trial
Finally, in April of this year, his family and his U.S.-based legal team were able to track him down in a prison facility in the Mordovia region of Russia, some 275 miles east/southeast of Moscow. Though U.S. officials have requested his immediate release, consular access to him has been denied. But he has finally been allowed to communicate remotely from prison, about which his American attorney, Martin De Luca, had this to say:
“The first thing Hubbard wanted to talk about when he was able to make contact with the outside world was: ‘It’s not true.’ They [Russian soldiers] grabbed him from his house. He was not in any combat or military unit.” [Lucy Papachristou, Reuters, June 13, 2025.]
And Hubbard’s son, Joseph Coleman of Cyprus, said he was able to speak to his father by phone for less than five minutes on May 28th:
“He did sound a little down. He said, ‘I’m tired of being a slave.’” [Id.]
A masterpiece of understatement, no doubt.
Videoconference From Prison
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Of the nine Americans currently imprisoned in Russia, Hubbard, now aged 73, is the only one officially designated by the U.S. as “wrongfully detained,” which gives him the best chance of being returned home in a future prisoner exchange; and his recent reemergence is reason for cautious optimism. Further, the Kremlin said last month that the two sides had been in discussions concerning a possible swap involving nine people on each side, though no names have been released as yet.
This is making it difficult to type, but my fingers seem to be stuck in a crossed position until all nine Americans — and the other political prisoners of various nationalities — are returned safely home.
And once again, here they are:
Prisoners of War:
The People of Ukraine The Azov 12
Political Prisoners:
David Barnes Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus) Gordon Black Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus) Antonina Favorskaya Konstantin Gabov Robert Gilman Stephen James Hubbard Sergey Karelin Ihar Karney (in Belarus) on Vadim Kobzev Darya Kozyreva Artyom Kriger Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus) Michael Travis Leake Aleksei Liptser Ihar Losik (in Belarus) Mikita Losik (in Belarus) Daniel Martindale Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan) Nika Novak 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)
With all of the hoopla about other world events today, let us — we Americans, at least — not forget that today is also Flag Day: the anniversary of the designation by the Continental Congress, in 1777, of the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States of America.
And long may she wave . . . in peace, freedom, and honor.
I can’t believe I nearly overlooked this headline in last week’s online news:
“Trump Wants Everyone To Know He’s Building A Big, Beautiful Ballroom“
At first I thought, “Well, so what? He must have ballrooms at Mar-a-Lago and other of his properties. What’s one more?”
And then I saw that this one isn’t personal; it’s going to be built in the White House. The White House in Washington that is owned — not by Donald or any member of the Trump family — but by the people of the United States of America . . . built, maintained and supported by taxpayer money.
That White House.
And I had to wonder — in this era of professed government “austerity” (i.e., the wholesale elimination of jobs and life-saving programs) — how this could be possible. But when I read his justification, it made complete sense. See if you agree:
“Just inspected the site of the new Ballroom that will be built, compliments of a man known as Donald J. Trump, at the White House. For 150 years, Presidents, and many others, have wanted a beautiful Ballroom, but it never got built because nobody previously had any knowledge or experience in doing such things — But I do, like maybe nobody else.
“These are the ‘fun’ projects I do while thinking about the World Economy, the United States, China, Russia, and lots of other Countries, places, and events.” [Lydia O’Connor, Huffpost, June 6, 2025.]
A Nice Quiet, Fun Game of Golf – Also at Taxpayer Expense
You get it now, don’t you? It’s all about the “fun” part of being President. Not greed, or an ego the size of Asia, or a neurotic need to believe he’s bigger and smarter and better than anyone else ever has been in the entire history of the world . . . or, in his own words, “like maybe nobody else.”
Of course, he’s entitled to a little fun: a $40 million parade that just happens to fall on his birthday . . . or spending nearly every weekend golfing at Mar-a-Lago or one of his other resorts . . . or sending out the Marines to inflame an already largely contained, relatively minor situation in Los Angeles.
Just as long as he continues “thinking about the World Economy, the United States, China, Russia, and lots of other Countries, places, and events,” he’ll be doing his job and we can all sleep soundly.
Though I do hope all that “thinking” doesn’t spoil his fun . . . don’t you?
As of this month, an estimated 19,500 children have been identified by Ukrainian authorities as having been forcibly relocated to Russia, Belarus, or Russian-occupied areas within Ukraine. Some have been placed with Russian families for adoption; others are in “reeducation” facilities; all are being brainwashed to become Russian citizens.
For three years, the U.S. State Department has funded Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, part of its School of Public Health, which has been the principal body tracking Russia’s alleged war crimes, including the abduction of Ukrainian children. But now, that funding has been terminated by Donald Trump’s DOGE — Department of Government Efficiency — in their mad frenzy to cut spending in areas they consider superfluous.
And apparently, the lives of those children have been deemed by the U.S. government to be expendable.
The Lab’s executive director, Nathaniel Raymond, has said that funding has all but run out:
“Right now, we are running on fumes, we have about two weeks of money left, mostly through individual donations from our website. As of July 1, we lay off all of our staff across Ukraine and other teams and our work tracking the kids officially ends. We are waiting for our Dunkirk moment, for someone to come rescue us so that we can go attempt to help rescue the kids.” [Kylie Atwood, CNN, June 11, 2025.]
Nathaniel Raymond, Yale School of Public Health
And if there is no “Dunkirk moment” — no 11th-hour miracle — those children may well be lost forever in the morass of Russian bureaucracy, never to be returned to their homes and families.
The Lab’s database containing the identities and other information on the abducted children has been transferred for preservation to the Ukrainian government and the U.S. State Department. The work done thus far by Yale has provided invaluable support to the International Criminal Court, which has issued six indictments against Russia for war crimes against Ukraine — two of them related specifically to the abduction of children.
But without funding, continuation of the Lab’s work will be impossible. A bipartisan group of U.S. Representatives, including Democrat Lloyd Doggett, has written Secretary of State Marco Rubio in support of reinstating the funding, saying in part:
“Research must continue unabated to maintain the rigorous process of identifying every Ukrainian child abducted by Russia. The [Ukraine] Conflict Observatory has verified that at least 19,500 children have been forcibly deported from occupied areas of Ukraine, funneled into reeducation camps or adopted by Russian families, and their identities erased.” [Id.]
Congressman Lloyd Doggett
I can’t help thinking that the $40 million being spent on Donald Trump’s birthday parade today could instead have gone a long way toward helping those child victims of Putin’s war. Maybe I just have my priorities wrong . . . but somehow, I don’t believe I do.
I have often voiced a certain skepticism about coincidences in general. But when a confluence of events — particularly political events — seems too coincidental to be just that, my skepticism turns very quickly to disbelief.
Consider:
> The U.S., in the person of Donald Trump, warns Iran that there will be serious consequences if it does not sign onto a proposed nuclear agreement.
> Russia, in the person of Vladimir Putin, makes a deal with Iran to accept the transfer of Iran’s enriched uranium.
> Israel, in the person of Benjamin Netanyahu, shocks the world by blowing the daylights out of Iran’s nuclear complex and military leadership.
> The U.S. — Trump again — issues a stronger warning to Iran.
> Russia — Putin, of course — steps in as the one person in the world best positioned to mediate.
Coincidence? Really?
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I wonder how many people alive today have heard of “Tinker to Evers to Chance” — the legendary infielders of the Chicago Cubs baseball team in the early 1900s, who perfected the double play: “short to second to first.” I don’t go back nearly that far, but they were so famous, that play was still talked about in my family of baseball fans when I was growing up.
And that’s what I am reminded of today, when I look at this situation in the Middle East, threatening another all-out war in a region that is already treacherously unstable. I see a convergence of actions by three world leaders, perfectly aligned to bring Iran to heel in the matter of nuclear containment.
Not that that would be a bad thing, if it is the sincere intent. But it brings to mind, once again, what strange bedfellows are brought together by politics.
And, rather incongruously, today’s news on this situation also brought with it my one good laugh of the day . . . and from the Russian leadership, no less.
In speaking out against Israel’s strike on Iran and the dangers of possible escalation, a lengthy statement was issued by the Foreign Ministry, stating in part:
“Unprovoked military strikes against a sovereign UN member state, its citizens, peaceful sleeping cities, and nuclear energy infrastructure are categorically unacceptable.
”The international community cannot afford to remain indifferent to such atrocities that destroy peace and harm regional and international security.”[Nathan Hodge, RFE/RL, June 13, 2025.] [Bold emphasis is mine.]
I’m sorry . . . there certainly is nothing funny about the possibility of another war in the Middle East, or anywhere else, for that matter. But come on! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black?!! Russia criticizing another country for attacking “a sovereign UN member state, its citizens, peaceful sleeping cities . . . [and] destroy[ing] peace and harm[ing] regional and international security”??!!!
Honestly? Has Sergei Lavrov — Russia’s Foreign Minister — never heard of a place called Ukraine?
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But back on the more serious side, Donald Trump — never to be outdone by Putin — posted on social media that he had recently spoken to the Russian leader and offered himself as broker of an agreement with Iran:
“I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement. President Putin suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion.” [Id.]
So, might this ill wind actually bring with it something beneficial . . . to Messrs. Trump and Putin, at least? Could this be yet another step toward their goal of full rapprochement between our two countries?
And if so, what a lucky “coincidence” it would be, for them, that Netanyahu provided them with this opportunity.
I thought it was a bit unusual when I saw on Wednesday that someone had just read one of my blog posts from last January 14th — titled “Compartments of a Life” — about my narrow escape some 30 years ago from a potential business involvement with a Russian oligarch who later found himself in very hot water, financially and legally. But I realize that sometimes people just stumble across articles while surfing the internet, so I put it out of my mind.
Until later in the evening, that is . . . when the name of the same oligarch, Vladimir Gusinsky, popped up in yet another news article. Of course, it may have been a coincidence in timing; or perhaps someone who had read the news story was searching for other articles on the same subject and just happened across mine. But I’m always a little skeptical about coincidences.
Vladimir Gusinsky
In any event, in the January article, Gusinsky’s name was tied to some other individuals — an American former FBI agent, another Russian oligarch, and a former Russian diplomat — who have been subjects of an FBI investigation and various charges. And it brought back a flood of memories about a job I nearly took that would have had me working closely with Gusinsky, but that I turned down for a wholly unrelated reason.
So I chose to write the January blog post about that 30-year-old incident, and how fortunate I was to have dodged a rather large bullet. And now, six months later, I find myself giving thanks again, as it seems that Gusinsky — who was not actually implicated in the original criminal case against the others — is in the news once more, having himself become of interest to the FBI. It is reported that they have questioned his now estranged wife, as well as employees of the couple’s home in Connecticut, about his ties to the others.
The full story has all the makings of a John Le Carre novel, and can be found in Mike Eckel’s article, “The Diplomat, The Oligarch, The FBI Agent: Russian-American Faces Trial in Deripaska Sanctions Case,” at rferl.org, June 12, 2025.
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In the early ‘90s, when so many Americans and other Westerners were rushing headlong into the new business and professional opportunities in Russia following the fall of the Soviet Union, there was no way of knowing what lay ahead: how many Russian billionaires would rise from the ashes of the newly privatized Soviet industries, or the extent of the corruption that would inevitably follow.
But the fallout of those wild years is still being felt three decades later. And while I thoroughly enjoyed being a small part of that initial excitement, and will always be happy to have had the experience, I am now — in a much quieter, saner stage of my life — quite content to sit back and watch the events from the bleachers.
Still, when each year brings a little less to look forward to, it’s nice to have something interesting to look back on.
On this date in 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood on the western side of the Berlin Wall before a crowd of German citizens and spoke to the leader of the USSR, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev:
“There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. Secretary General Gorbachev, if you seek peace — if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe — if you seek liberalization: come here, to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
President Ronald Reagan – Berlin, West Germany – June 12, 1987
That speech was President Reagan’s reminder that the U.S. was ready to renew negotiations on nuclear arms reductions, and to take whatever steps were appropriate to reduce Cold War tensions. [“This Day In History,” History.com, June 12, 2025.]
But it was much more than that. It was the precursor of momentous events to come. On December 8th of that year, the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty; and just two years later, on November 9, 1989, the people of Berlin breached that very wall, and it was — after 28 years of dividing the people of the free West from the communist East — finally torn down. A reunified Germany was ready to begin building a new future.
Another two years after that — on December 26, 1991 — the Soviet Union itself ceased to exist. Its 15 republics became 15 independent nations, and remain so to this day . . . though some less independently than others. (But that is a whole separate story.)
June 12, 1987, remains a day to be celebrated, and one for which Ronald Reagan will always be remembered: a legacy to be proud of, indeed.
Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Putin: Three of a Kind
On February 2, 1933, three days after becoming chancellor of Germany, Adolph Hitler told the members of the Reichsrat — a federal body of state representatives charged with monitoring the relationship between the German Reich and the state governments — that the states were the “historic building blocks of the German nation,” and that he would not intrude on the sovereignty of the states, but would assert Reich control only “where absolutely necessary.” [Timothy W. Ryback, The Atlantic, June 10, 2025.]
Three weeks later, on February 27th, the Reichstag building was burned, allegedly by a sole arsonist caught in the act as an attempt to start a Bolshevik revolution. That was all Hitler needed as an excuse to suspend civil liberties and suppress the voting rights of the German Communist Party, and for his supporters in the Reichstag to pass legislation granting him full authoritarian power.
Citing an “eternal battle” between the German states and the central government, he pledged to solve it by dismantling the federated system and creating a “unified will” for the nation. He told the press that imposition of a central authority was not the “raping” of state sovereignty, but an “alignment” of state policies with those of the central government. [Id.]
Hitler convinced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue an emergency decree known as “Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State,” which, among other things, suspended civil liberties. Hitler was thus able to suppress any and all political opposition ahead of the elections scheduled for March 5th. [Id.]
The decree also stated: “If any state fails to take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order, the Reich government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest state authority.” [Id.]
The Reichstag Fire – February 27, 1933
Beginning to sound familiar?
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Joseph Stalin — in a frenzy of paranoia — began his Great Purge (also known as the Great Terror) with the assassination in 1934 of Sergei Kirov, head of the Bolshevik party in Leningrad and once a personal friend of Stalin, who had become too popular and was thus deemed a threat to Stalin’s autocratic rule. That murder was then used as Stalin’s excuse to begin a series of show trials to rid himself of all suspected dissenters from the Bolshevik and Communist parties.
Between 1937 and 1938, he carried out a purge of his own military, ordering the arrest and execution of a large number of high-ranking officers . . . thus seriously weakening his country’s forces.
And then, in an anti-Semitic rage, he went after the nation’s doctors — a substantial number of whom had the misfortune of being Jewish — by fabricating a “doctors’ plot,” for which they were rounded up and shot.
Finally, from 1936 to 1938, under NKVD head Nikolai Yezhov, hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens were accused of espionage, sabotage, wrecking, anti-Soviet agitation, conspiracies to start uprisings and coups, and the like. While the entire population of Russia was affected, certain ethnic minorities were specifically targeted, including those of Polish or German origin.
Stalin Show Trial– c. 1930s
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I hardly need to remind the reader what Russia’s current president, Vladimir Putin, has proven himself capable of. Over the years, he has targeted ethnic groups, such as the people of Chechnya and the Central Asian regions; political adversaries, including Aleksei Navalny, Boris Nemtsov, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and countless others; and the entire nation of Ukraine . . . creating conditions to be used as excuses to eliminate them.
There were the four 1999 apartment building bombings in three cities, triggering the second Chechen war; the Dubrovka Theater hostage situation in Moscow in 2002; the Crocus City Hall terror attack in 2024; the Beslan school terror attack of 2004 . . . all fomented as excuses for Putin’s consolidation of power.
And of course, his most recent accusations of the alleged mistreatment of Ukraine’s Russian-speakers by the country’s “nazi” government, leading him to launch his “special military operation” in February of 2022 . . . the excuse he himself created in order to seize control of a sovereign nation that he considers the rightful possession of Russia.
Putin’s “Special Military Operation” – Kharkiv, Ukraine – June 2025
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We all know what happened to nazi Germany, to the Soviet Union, and to 21st century Russia. In each case, there were warning signs: sudden crises, used as excuses to consolidate power in the hands of a single dictator and deprive the citizenry of its rights. And each time, the warning signs were overlooked, or ignored until it was too late.
How many times will we allow it to happen before we cry out . . .
The Blog About Everything … and Sometimes Nothing 