And after a while, I forgot with whom I was speaking — After an hour of ping-ponging back and forth with my MAGA brother, I announced that I had been mistaken. My admission was that I had been foolish to put in a family chat on WhatsApp an article where I compared Russia’s turn to fascism with the MAGA movement. I knew…

What Putin got right and what he got wrong when he invaded Ukraine — In a 1995 interview, the first president of Chechnya, and a man I am not ready to praise or condemn for his past efforts in his independence for his homeland of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Dzhokar Dudayev prophetically predicted Russia’s inevitable slip into barbarity and genocide. “The peoples of…

The students need me as much as I need them — The classes begin early so it’s still really cold. I see the sun shining through the windows shooting the early spring rays across their faces. I have been acquainted with the street where they sit to hear my lecture forever. I know that region, those shadows, the winding courtyards, and…

To begin to understand ‘how did we get a Trump,” historians should start with the DeVos and Van Andel MLM brainchild — Historians will be pondering for years, how did the phenomenon of Donald Trump happen in the United States. Many will look to the end of the actual years of Trump, and at the most extreme elements of his following, and say it was all based on racism. Others will look…

Russian stores selling Ukraine’s famous black soil stolen for use at the dacha — The most fertile black soil on the earth is in Ukraine. It is called “chernozem,” which means “black earth.” It is like a gift from God and Ukrainians have been enjoying that splendor for centuries. But now thanks to Vladimir Putin’s war of genocide, mineral-rich soil can be purchased in…

The buzz among locals is that NATO bombers and drones are daily circling the city — Air raid shelters, abandoned since World War II, dot the city in a sporadic and unplanned manner almost like they were mushrooms in the forest. Only this forest is not the lovely birch-filled ones that surrounded the city, but the city of St. Petersburg; and, instead of offering sustenance, the…

Are we making progress? — It was only three little kids this time — the 90th school shooting of 2023. The gunned-up right is simply gushing at how well the Nashville police responded to the shooting. The bodycam video shows professional, brave policemen doing a textbook job. Bravo to them, indeed. I mean this. The…

Active shooter drills are okay but a photo of a naked 500-year-old statue offends some parents — Principal Hope Carasquilla of the Tallahassee Classical School was pressured to resign last week because 6th graders were shown a picture of the above statue. Michelangelo’s classic David statue was finished in 1504. It has been inspiring art lovers and tourists for over 500 years and not once during that…

A transgender man, does this not make the shooter a male? — The assailant in the Nashville school shooting that took the lives of three precious 9-year-olds and three adults at the school is being called “a female mass shooter.” The now deceased 28-year-old, I will not say her name, is a transgender. Born a biological female, the assailant identified but also…