“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.” Woody Allen
September 10, 2025, And Every Wednesday
By Linda Case Gibbons, Esq.
(Check out Lest We Forget and FYI.)
Who would think Ponce de Leon had anything in common with Russian President Putin and Chinese President Xi?
But, surprise, surprise. They do.
Ponce (I think that’s what you’d call him) wasn’t contented to have “discovered” Florida, the place where future U.S. citizens could happily retire in their golden years. He yearned for, and sought, eternal youth.
And, as the legend goes, he believed he had found the Fountain of Youth in the waters of St. Augustine.
Of course, he was like other explorers who set out to find riches, and to discover lands that weren’t really lost. In his case, he was commissioned by the Spanish Crown.
According to counter-American historian Howard Zinn, the early explorers decimated native populations, and saw nothing wrong with enslaving the natives who lived in this “New World.”
Zinn is accurate. There was a brutality that was undeniable. But his slant is top heavily leftist when it comes to placing blame. Read him anyway.
Fast forward from 1513, and we find the lust for immortality is alive and kicking. And, sad to say, so is a tolerance for slavery and brutality.
That’s where Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un come in. They had an Axis of Evil Meeting in Beijing last Wednesday to view a military parade marking the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II.
Beside the fact that the guys took credit for putting Japan out of business during the War, when it really was the United States, potato, tomatah, harvesting organs was on their minds.
A hot mic caught Putin and Xi's conversation, as they walked toward the viewing platform in Tiananmen Square.
Putin was heard through his interpreter. “Human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and you can even achieve immortality.”
Xi was heard responding, “Some predict that in this century humans may live to 150 years old.”
Putin and Xi both know people don’t live to 150…without new parts. And they know that organs don’t grow on trees.
So do the 103,223 men, women and children who are on waiting lists for an organ transplant.
“What kind of people think that way? About slavery. About stealing organs?” you might ask. But you know.
They are the same people who harvest and sell parts from aborted fetuses.
The people who install No Bail Laws. And the elected officials who enforce them.
Like Andrew Cuomo.
Is it a secret that President Xi’s country harvests organs? Uses slave labor? No.
Ask Lebron James. Ask Nike.
In an interview with China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper this month, during a basketball-themed tour of China, James said, “Every time I come here, my family and I are warmly welcomed. I am deeply moved by the hospitality and friendliness of our Chinese friends.”
And no. He didn’t mention the largesse of his own country.
And he didn’t mention slavery at all.
China holds the position of the world’s largest exporter of goods, like Nike sneakers.
It is documented by Global Slavery Index that state-imposed forced labor of Uyghurs, Muslims, and others, is used in China “as a means of racial and religious discrimination, political coercion and as punishment for holding views opposed to the state,” and, as such, is an integral part of China’s economic model.
An estimated 5.6 million are living in modern day slavery in China today.
Putin’s not wrong to want to live forever. To be president of Russia forever. Ditto for Xi.
We don’t know what Kim Jong Un thinks, but we can guess.
After all, in 1890 Dorian Gray wanted to look handsome and young forever. But, it didn’t end up that way. He made a bargain with the wrong guy.
And that doesn’t work. Selling your soul to the Devil never does.
Hold the line, America.
Stay strong, Patriots.