September 23, 2026

Wednesday. Left at 3:53. Blacksmith. Late summer weather, with sun, light winds out of the south, and mild. Gradually clouding over, but never cool. Singel to Koningsweg and Wayen. Commuters beginning to appear. Langeweg with all the corn gone. ARK calm; south of the Schalkwijk brug just gravel, so back to Tripdijk and Lange Uitweg. There, fresh-mowed, fragrant grass on both sides. Lekdijk past Tull en 't Waal, then Sluispad. A lot of barges queing up to enter the locks. Water level on the rivers remains too low, so perhaps more boats are still needed to move the same amount of cargo. Juthpaas back to the ARK. The whole world apparently riding home from work, one half electrified, the rest old-style cycling or scootering. Even busier around the Gele brug--an entirely different world from the one mid-morning. The news showing evidence of Russia's all-out push--conventionally, for now--to force Ukraine to its knees. Also more, and more aggressive, provocations of NATO countries. All this has increased calls in the West for "dialogue," for alternatives to this violence. Even the well-meaning innocents seem to be incapable of understanding the basic facts of this war. Somehow, they seem to think, talking to Russians, or their government, is going to promote peace. As well-meaning as these people may be, they're still the Kremlin's useful idiots, since their arguments, such as they are, can only serve to undermine Western (European) support for Ukraine's fight for survival. Worse is the invitation sent to the Kremlin by the U.S. administration, for the Russian president to attend the upcoming G-20 meeting in Florida. One week, the president signs Congress's latest sanctions bill against Russia and its enablers into law, the next, he sends the Russian president an invitation to join the conversation on global financial and economic issues. Every day we get more evidence of what happens when the government of the country at the heart of the post-World War II order gets taken over by a group hostile to just about everything that order used to stand for. There are plenty of opportunists in Europe too, as witness the lifting of sactions on two Russian oligarchs this week. The old order is being dismantled, replaced by selfish opportunism and might-makes-right. As the president of Ukraine said yesterday, we're already back in a world of war, it's getting worse, and the end is not yet in sight.