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The Russo-Ukraine War: Four Horrifying Years In

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 Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ― Margaret Mead

They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done in 24 hours. Donald Trump during a CNN town hall in May 2023.

Three years ago, one year after the Tussian attack on Ukraine, I wrote, When Ukraine stopped the initial Russian attack, a year ago, and then drove several Russian elite units back across the border, it seemed to me that the war would be over soon… Now, a year after it started, it looks like this war will go on forever. It seems everybody is digging in for the long term, and the killing will go on.

The killing and maiming did go on, and it is still going on. Just how many soldiers have been killed and maimed on each side is hard to pin down; still, all the numbers point to Russia having about 1.2 million casualties, including well over 200,000 deaths. By outside accounts, Russia is now losing soldiers at a rate that is higher than they can recruit replacements. As somebody on the podcast Ukraine Today said, “More and more Russians are starting to realize enlisting is a one-way ticket.” But changing from a voluntary army to a conscription army will not be popular.

In the meanwhile, Trump has attacked Iran, ignoring such niceties as running the idea past Congress (atleast, he didn’t call it a Special Military Operation, like Putin did). I could rant and rave about it, but not as well as Congressperson Ocasio-Cortez, so I’m going to quote her.

The American people are once again dragged into a war they did not want by a president who does not care about the long-term consequences of his actions. This war is unlawful. It is unnecessary. And it will be catastrophic.

Just this week, Iran and the United States were negotiating key measures that could have staved off war. The President walked away from these discussions and chose war instead. President Trump flippantly acknowledged the possibility of American casualties, stating “that often happens in war.

Mr. President: this was not an inevitability. This is a deliberate choice of aggression when diplomacy and security were within reach. Stop lying to the American people.

Violence begets violence. We learned this lesson in Iraq. We learned this lesson in Afghanistan. And we are about to learn it again in Iran. Bombs have yet to create enduring democracies in the region, and this will be no different.

The whole thing is sad more than scary, as of March 3, 2026, about 787 Iranians have been killed, 6 American Army grunts – well, one officer, four sergeants, and one spec 5 – and 11 Israelis. Trump may be right that this carnage will end in a week, he certainetly has more information than I do – well, access to information , anyway, much of which he seems to ignore – but wars usually take on a unplanned and often unwanted trajectory and I don’t think this will be an exception.  

Merry Christmas

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Photo by Michele, whose hands are reflected in the heart.

I grew up saying “Merry Christmas,” even though nobody in our family was an actual practicing Christian, and it is still my most comfortable greeting for this time of year. For us, for me, anyway, Christmas is a secular holiday to celebrate the return of the Light, the return of the promise of renewal that, first, the New Year, then Spring, which is now just around the corner – Coastal California, at least – gives us.

If, however, you would prefer Happy Bodhi Day, Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Yalda Night, then “Happy Bodhi Day”, “Happy Hanukkah”, or “Happy Yalda Night”. If you prefer Happy Holidays, then “Happy Holidays”.

Around Yangshou

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The river forms a green gauze belt, the mountains are like jade hairpins. (漓江像一条绿色的丝带，山峰似一根根玉簪) Han Yu, written sometime between 768 and 824 (when it wasn’t as smoggy).

Yangshoe has been a tourist destination, of sorts, for a thousand years. Now – well, in 2009, really – the town was full of tourists. Mostly Chinese tourists, many of them staying at big, expensive-looking hotels with BMW X5s and Mercedes in front, and the handsomest store in town is a wedding arranger.

On our second day, we wandered out of Yangshou into a rural landscape. Still, walking around the farming area by Yangshuo, everything seemed familiar. The sights, the smells, the quiet, the slow pace of the people, the water buffalo. At first, I thought my mind was making it feel familiar so I would feel safe, then I realized Michele and I have been walking through these areas for as long as we’ve been married.

But China is very different. In other countries we’ve been to, the children would come up and ask for pens or candy; in China, they take pictures of us on their cell phones. We bought water at a small store, and the salesgirl – and the salespeople are almost always young girls, that hasn’t changed – scanned the bottles! 

We chatted with the only tourist we saw all day, a White woman from South Africa, who we saw on the trail, which in China, is a paved road! – and she said “It’s like China skipped a stage”. Here, in the good ol’ USA, we are told almost daily how poor China is, and it is, compared to us, but not compared to what it was. China’s transformation is a story of skipping a stage, as the woman on the trail observed. It began in 1978 with the shift from a centralized planned economy to a decentralized market economy. This series of moves created a manufacturing powerhouse, integrating China into the global economy and pulling over 800 million people out of poverty. China has become a vast, modern economy, now evolving toward high-tech innovation.

The country’s economic muscle is undeniable, but the change has also brought complexity. It’s no longer just the world’s factory; it’s now a global player in tech and value-added industries. Yes, our internal propaganda still talks about how poor China is, but compared to its past, it’s a radically different, modernized place, in the cities, at least. Traveling through China’s cities is fascinating, but the countryside is probably not very different today from what it was in, say, 1975, or from Korea in the 60s, or rural Guatemala, or Morocco. In the countryside, the rapid ascent – from quiet, familiar rural scenes to an undeniable technological leader – is not as noticeable.

Robert A.M. Stern & Frank Gehry R.I.P.

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The American dream has always depended on the dialogue between the present and the past. Robert A. M. Stern

Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness. Frank GehryThe

A couple of days ago, I got a text from Beth Stelluto, saying, “So sorry to read that one of your architectural heroes died. 96wow! Love his creativity.” I texted back, “And Robert A. M. Stern died two weeks ago.” The exchange started me thinking about Stern and Gehry and how much they, in particular, and architecture in general have enriched my life, which led me into the infinite rabbit hole of the World Wide Web and the realization of how much of their work I missed and how much they have formed our world.

To start at the end, the world of architecture, all of us really, lost two of our most influential architects recently: Robert A. M. Stern, who died on November 27, 2025, at 86, and Frank Gehry, who died on December 5, 2025, at 96. Each began their careers at the high-water mark of Mid-Century Modernism, and each reacted in entirely different ways to the great majority of their fellow architects. They ostensibly ended up occupying opposite ends of the design spectrum – one, Stern, almost a classical architect until you look closely, and the other, Gehry, pushing Mid-Century Modernism into sculpture – were both ultimately committed to the same thing: making buildings that absolutely demanded to be seen, discussed, and remembered, enriching our world. For almost diametrically different reasons, they are two of my favorite architects.

Robert A. M. Stern became the master of pre-Mid-Century Modern (for the lack of a better definition). He was born in Brooklyn in 1939 and built his architectural practice on the idea that buildings should be contextual and honor the site’s longer cultural lineage. Stern wasn’t a nostalgic purist, but, in his own way, a rebel who asserted that elegance and history were vital components of contemporary urban life. His aesthetic was rooted in echoes of the past and a desire to fit in, as seen in his limestone-clad, 550-foot-high residential tower at 15 Central Park West in Manhattan (on the far left, below).

Except that he never changed his name, Robert A. M. Stern reminds me a lot of Ralph Lauren (and, believe me, that’s a compliment). Both were outsiders who took the establishment’s worn-out accoutrements and revitalised them; in other words, both got rich catering to the bourgeoisie ( bourgeoisie in the Marxist context of the capitalist class who own most of society’s wealth and means of production as opposed to the proletariat). I went to a lecture at, I think, an AIA conference about thirty years ago when Stern was the featured speaker. One of the shocking things he said was that more than fifty percent of his commissions had no budget for either architecture or construction.

Frank Gehry, born Ephraim Owen Goldberg in Toronto in 1929, was a revolutionary who spent years designing modest shopping centers, designed and built on budget, before his creative explosion. It wasn’t until the transformative remodeling of his own Santa Monica home, using a chain-link fence and corrugated metal, that he began to show his talent. He went on to become one of the most influential architects of our time, forever reshaping skylines with his striking, sculptural works, such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and 8 Spruce Street in Manhattan.

Looking at these two buildings in New York, the classic facade of the Stern condo, and the rippling curves of the Gehry apartment, these two titans of architecture, for all their differences, represented the full, rich spectrum of American architecture. Robert A. M. Stern and Frank Gehry built different worlds, one of dignified grace echoing the past and the other pushing design freedom, both leaving behind a profound and lasting legacy. We’ll miss them.

Finally, here are a couple of their building that I don’t think need architectural identification.