Category Archives: International news

All is quiet … for now!

NUREMBERG, Germany — I cannot help but feeling somewhat vulnerable as I visit with friends and travel around the lush countryside of this beautiful region of Europe.

Why? Because of the war that rages just two countries to the east of Bavaria in southern Germany.

Ukraine continues to fight for its life against Russian invaders. Someone will have to explain to me why Russian thug Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago. It was thought Kyiv would fall in four days. It’s still standing. Ukraine is going to get more U.S. aid.

Meanwhile, Germany — the nation the world fought eight decades ago — stands on the precipice of armed conflict. As someone told me the other day, “If Russia invades any NATO country, we’re all in the fight.”

I’m here visiting friends and relaxing. It’s been a joyful time for me and for my friends as we have gotten reacquainted.

But if I get way up on my tippy toes and cast my gaze to the east, I see the signs of potential trouble for Germany … and, indeed, the rest of the world.

This just makes it imperative that we stick with Ukraine as it fights for its very life.

Speaker does his job

In the Republican Party of 2024, styled in the image of former President Donald J. Trump, a norm-preserving, consensus-driven act — even a basic one — can be a career-ending offense.

So wrote the subhead on a story in the New York Times about the decision by House Speaker Mike Johnson to proceed with a vote to give Ukraine billions of dollars in military aid.

I am of mixed feelings about Mike Johnson. He is far from my idea of a perfect House speaker, yet I do not want to see him torpedoed by the MAGA cult that comprises the most vocal caucus within the House GOP conference.

The MAGAites don’t want to assist Ukraine in its fight for survival against the Russian army invaders. They are beholden to Vladimir Putin, the ham-fisted strongman who pretends to be a BFF of the 45th POTUS. The reality appears to be that while POTUS No. 45 admires Putin, his “good buddy” actually loathes him and sees him as a useful idiot.

Mike Johnson, Like Pence, Does What Passes for Brave in Today’s GOP: His Job – The New York Times (1ft.io)

Well, thanks in part to the speaker’s insistence on doing the right thing and standing tall for democracy, Ukraine is going to get more needed aid from Congress as it seeks to fend off the immoral invasion by Russia.

A large part of me doesn’t want to see Mike Johnson torpedoed because he stood up for democracy.

Pictures coming … eventually!

CESKY KRUMLOV, Czech Republic — I own this fancy cell phone that is supposed to allow me to do anything I want while traveling.

It’s not working properly, which means I cannot provide any photographic evidence just yet of the sights I am seeing on my travel through central Europe.

I will ask you to trust me that this town in the Czech Republic is a glorious place that reeks of history and beauty.

My friend and I are staying in a lovely Middle Ages hotel. The rooms are cozy but clean. My friend speaks German and English, I speak only English and the customer service personnel here speak Czech and English.

The antiques go beyond being merely old. They are ancient in many cases.

This much I can declare: This trip has enabled me to cross two more countries off my “need to visit” list, France and the Czech Republic.

The fun continues.

The hunt continues

NUREMBERG, Germany — Very soon, my friend and I are going to head toward the Czech Republic border in search for the perfect Greek pastry.

It will have to be perfect, although it will be difficult to ascertain whether it reaches the level of perfection set by my late bride, Kathy Anne.

Here’s the story in brief.

Kathy Anne and I were married in 1971 and she joined my family that included my surviving grandmother … whom we called “Yiayia.” My grandmother made a particular Greek dessert that Kathy Anne swore melted in her mouth. It is called kourabiedes; it is a cookie covered in powdered sugar.

Kathy Anne and I traveled twice together to Greece. We tried to find a cookie that matched Yiayia’s creation. “Not even close,” Kathy Anne would say.

My pal Martin tells me this particular bakery in the Czech Republic makes some delectable desserts. We shall find out if they measure up to the greatness that came from Yiayia’s kitchen.

My trick knee tells me Kathy Anne would remain unimpressed.

Holocaust on full display

NUREMBERG, Germany — My friend told me something about the education he received growing up in this country that I feel compelled to share.

While many American politicians seek to avoid teaching our children about all aspects of our country’s history, German children are given the opportunity to tour first-hand one of history’s greatest scourges.

My good pal Martin explained to me that all students are required to take field trips to tour one of the death camps built by the Nazi regime that launched World War II in 1939 and sought to exterminate a race of people.

The Holocaust is on full display in Germany these days, Martin said.

“We have to see it ourselves,” he told me this morning. This is my second trip to Nuremberg; I came here eight years ago with my bride, Kathy Anne and on that 2016 visit, I toured the Documentation Center, the museum built to commemorate the war trials that took place in Nuremberg after WWII.

Martin told me on that first visit that “we aren’t proud of that period in our history, but we do not hide it, either.” He said then that Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror was a “blight” on Germany’s otherwise glorious history.

Today I learned about how German children are taken to one of the sites used by the Nazis to imprison innocent families … and where they were executed!

And to think, thus, that American politicians do not want our children to learn about our own nation’s “blight,” such as, say, our enslavement of human beings.

Absolutely disgusting! We mustn’t hide, either, from the sins committed by our own nation’s leaders.

Nice knowin’ ya, Mr. Speaker

House Speaker Mike Johnson might not be long for the powerful post he now occupies. Why is that?

Because he has decided to do the right thing by allowing a vote on an aid package for Ukraine, which is likely to piss off the MAGA crowd that opposes sending more aid to the nation fighting forces sent to Ukraine on orders from Vladmir Putin, the good pal of the POTUS No. 45.

“I believe Xi, Vladimir Putin, and Iran really are an axis of evil,” Johnson said recently. There you have it. He’s on the record calling Putin, the Russian strongman, part of a newly formed evil triumvirate.

Did Mike Johnson Just Get Religion on Ukraine? | The New Yorker (1ft.io)

I cannot even begin to wrap my arms around the irony here.

He is speaker largely because he was endorsed by the former Liar in Chief. Now the ex-Moron in Chief might turn on him if the MAGA cultists in the House engineer a vote to remove him.

Jiminy Crickets. My head won’t stop spinning!

He is going to allow a $60 billion aid package to come to a vote. The MAGA crowd won’t stand for it.,

It, however, is the right thing to do. Johnson knows it. So do most Americans. The MAGA cultists, however, march to their own cadence … and it is seriously out of step with the rest of this nation.

They aren’t so rude

PARIS — I had heard for many decades that the French dislike Americans, that they refuse to speak English to us out of spite.

Such criticism never has made sense to me, other than the nationalism that the late Charles de Gaulle instilled in his countrymen and women during his time as president.

My brief encounter with French folks, I am happy to report, has been quite pleasant. The taxi driver I hired to take me to the Eiffel Tower wasn’t much of a talker … then again, neither was I during our ride together through the hideous Paris traffic.

All the customer service employees I have encountered on my lengthy layover in this lovely city have been professional and have done their country proud with their courtesy.

Paris is gearing up to play host to the Summer Olympics later this year and I’ll just add that the city is spotlessly clean, at least along the streets and highways I traveled earlier today.

Athens was the previous Olympic city I visited. That was in 2003 and the city had embarked on a massive clean-up to prepare for the2004 Games. The Greeks were proud to host the Games and the French appear to be no less proud as their moment basking in the sports world sunshine approaches.

All in all, my brief exposure to France has been a wonderful experience.

ISIS rears its evil head

Joe Biden has been handed yet another crisis … as if he needs anything else to occupy his time.

The Islamic State is taking “credit” for a massive shooting spree in Moscow that has killed at least 60 people; they were attending a music festival in the Russian capital.

What does the president do? He’s already on record opposing Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine. He has labeled Putin a war criminal for the indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets.

He now might be forced to decide whether to send aid to Russia as it seeks to clean up the carnage left by ISIS’s ghastly goons. The victims were innocent civilians. Does the president commit U.S. intelligence professionals to help the Russians identify the source of this horrific deed?

All that said, I am left only to offer my deep sympathy to the family members and loved ones of those who were killed or injured by terrorists. As for what President Biden might do, I offer my sincere good wishes that his power of discernment doesn’t fail him now.

Where’s the outrage?

The 45th POTUS has remained stunningly silent on the “rigged election” that occurred the other day in Russia, which elected his pal Vladimir Putin to another term as president/strongman/despot/thug/goon.

And yet the former Moron in Chief continues to rail against the phony allegation that the 2020 election in this country was “stolen” from him. It wasn’t.

Putin is despot for life in Russia, a title to which his American pal aspires, or so it appears.

He “won” the election in Russia against virtually zero opposition, which is how they do things in the formerly democratic Russian Federation. It is reverting to the ways of old, to the ways of the evil empire it replaced in 1991.

Are we hearing anything in protest from the presumed Republican presidential nominee or from his shrinking gaggle of cult followers?

Hah! Not even …

Schumer out of bounds on Israel’s politics

Charles Schumer should tend to the affairs of New York and the U.S. Senate … and keep his nose out of Israeli politics.

Schumer recently called for the ouster of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The New York Democrat and Senate majority leader also said Israel needs to conduct a special election to find a prime minister who, I will presume, is more to Schumer’s liking.

I am not going to endorse Netanyahu’s stance on the way he and the Israeli Defense Forces are prosecuting the war in Gaza against the terrorist group Hamas. He does need to pull back and stop the insane attacks on civilians in Gaza and must be more proactive in fighting the growing starvation that is killing helpless civilians.

However, for a sitting US senator — this nation’s highest-ranking official who happens to be Jewish — to call for a change of government in America’s strongest ally in the Middle East goes way beyond what is right and proper.

I strongly believe that Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorists. Hamas is a ruthless, brutal organization that started this war with its horrific rocket attack on Oct. 7, 2023. It aimed its ordnance at civilians and is now paying the price.

But, so too, are civilians caught in the carnage. Israel vows to destroy Hamas and I find it impossible to disagree with Bibi Netanyahu’s stated aim in that regard.

As for the chutzpah that Sen. Schumer is exhibiting, he needs to stand down and butt the hell out of Israeli domestic politics.