. . . if s/he uses the expression “to validate somebody’s experience.”

A person who is not in health care and who uses the expression is simply not very bright.

Even Dr. Phil makes fun of this meaningless concept of “validating experiences.”

One has to be very careful with one’s reading matter these days. You open a book and it seems perfectly normal. You start reading and it still looks normal. You continue reading and it is still quite normal.

And then, when you are about 25% in, it turns out to be fantasy.

It’s like one has to invest 5 hours into researching every casual read to spare oneself such unfortunate occurrences.

Today is the international Free Nadiya Savchenko Day.

Nadiya is a 33 – year-old fighter pilot from Ukraine who was captured by the Russians in Ukraine, dragged across the border into Russia, charged with crossing the Russian border without a visa (which she obviously did although not of her own will) and a host of other ridiculous things.

To protest against her illegal detention, Nadiya declared a hunger strike. At first, she accepted glucose during the strike but Russia’s media celebrity Doctor Lisa (like our Dr Phil but with homicidal tendencies) came to visit Nadiya in prison and started making fun of her, saying that this wasn’t a real hunger strike. So Nadiya refused the glucose.

In 2004-5 Nadiya served as part of the peacekeeping forces in Iraq at the request of the US. And today the US leadership is pretending not to know that Nadiya is dying a slow death in a Russian jail.

The only reason for the Russians to keep torturing Nadiya is to demonstrate their utter impunity to the world.

Time is running out for this heroic woman. The Russians are torturing her because through Nadiya they can torture all Ukrainians.

And while the impotent Russian opposition is congratulating itself for today’s useless march, Nadiya is dying and fresh Russian troops are pouring across the border into Ukraine. And the Ukrainian woman who was walking next to the dissident Nemtsov when he was killed has been kidnapped by the Russians and is being held in an undisclosed location by them.

Russians are marching right now to honor the memory of the slain dissident Boris Nemtsov. Many are simultaneously protesting their country’s invasion of Ukraine.

It’s all a waste of time, though. They will march, sloganeer, feel good about themselves, and then go home and let everything remain the same. This is what happened during the protests of 2011-2012 when the same people protested against the falsified elections.

Real change can’t be bought by walking down a street and waving a placard. When Ukrainians wanted change, they went out into the Maidan and stayed there even when they were shot at and a hundred of their comrades died. And after winning, they still didn’t disperse and started the patient, difficult work of state building that is still going on.

All the Russians do is argue whether their tsar is a good tsar or a better one might be found. Their infrequent protests are the protests of consumers, not makers. I have zero hope that today’s event in Moscow will achieve anything.