Dispatches from Vilnius

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Vladimir, STOP!

Those were the words of Donald Trump after Vladimir Putin launched one of the worst air raids on Kyiv since the start of the war. This after Russia supposedly made a number of "concessions" including not taking Ukraine as a whole. This was Putin's objective from the start of the war. Remember that 60-kilometer long convoy closing in on Kyiv back in March, 2022, only to watch it get picked apart by drones, with the husks of the tanks carried away by Ukrainian tractors. This war has been a terrible failure for Putin as he has been unable to secure his gains and has lost well over 100,000 soldiers in the process. Overall Russian casualties are nearly 1 million. It has been a huge embarrassment for his country to take a beating like this. After all, Russia was supposed to be second only to the United States as a military power. But, Putin is not one to back down and will continue his attacks, hoping that Ukraine will eventually be forced to ...

Our Poland moment

At least 34 killed in missile strike on Sumy When the war first broke out in Ukraine, the Lithuanian Prime Minister Šimonytė called it our "Poland moment," referring to Hitler's attack on Poland in 1939. Had Putin been able to overrun Ukraine the way Hitler had Poland, it very well could have been the start of WWIII. In many ways it still is because NATO was relatively quick to come to the defense of Ukraine and help the country hold off the Russian onslaught with a steady supply of munitions. Witless Steve Witkoff proudly announced he had reached a ceasefire agreement in the Black Sea after what he described as " compelling " talks with Putin. This hasn't stopped Vlad the Impaler from continually firing on Ukrainian cities, including the Black Sea city of Odessa, which was hit with a barrage of missiles and drones this week. Nevertheless, the Trump administration presses on, using a combination of "diplomacy" and Trump rants on social media ...

Are we winning yet?

Palm Sunday and speculation abounds that Trump will declare martial law on Easter to deploy troops to the southern border. His administration seems to have a knack for invoking old acts, in this case the 1807 Insurrection Act, to justify their heinous policies. So far, the Supreme Court has been very accommodating as they upheld the Trump administration's use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to detain and deport what they regard as dangerous immigrants. Autocracy appears to be the logical next step. He's certainly managed to put everyone on guard, but so far he hasn't exactly followed through on his initiatives. All his talk of tariffs to rectify what he regarded as a massive trade deficit blew up in his face last week when the Dow tumbled 5000 points. He very quickly pulled back on the tariffs which even his DOGE efficiency expert called "dumb as a sack of bricks." Musk was referring to Pete Navarro out of deference to Trump. Petey was the supp...

Our Man in Riyadh

Steve Witkoff addressing the press on the White House lawn. Listening to Steve Witkoff herald Putin as a man who wants peace is one the most cynical things I've heard recently. All through these "negotiations," Russian missiles have been raining down on Ukrainian cities. An unrelenting barrage that has seen a daily average of 23 warheads since the start of the war in February, 2022. The prime targets have been civilian buildings, although Putin claims these are military targets much like Netanyahu claims everything is fair game in Gaza. To date, more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have died and another 30,000 injured, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission. Not to mention the millions that have been displaced. Then there is all the infrastructure that has been destroyed. Putin's forces have taken out an estimated $58 billion in housing alone. Close to $200 billion in infrastructure all together, as of December 31, 2024. ...

Seize the Day!

There's a whole lot of buyer remorse being expressed in town halls across the country as the full weight of Trump 2.0 begins to be felt by voters. Yet, the media goes on and on about how the Democratic Party is in free fall and offers a number of bleak scenarios for 2026 and beyond. Some Democratic leaders are even attaching themselves to some rather unsavory creatures. Gavin Newsom has recently been found flirting with Steve Bannon , hoping to feed off the MAGA dissent in a presidential bid in 2028, but Bannon isn't abandoning the movement. Rather, he is robustly predicting Trump will win a third term. Bannon's chief problem isn't Donald, but Elon, whom he thinks has overstepped his role in the MAGA movement. Like most MAGAts, Steve seems to have a poor understanding of how the Constitution works. It would take 2/3s of Congress and 3/4 of the state legislatures to amend the Constitution to allow a president to seek a third term. Anyway, there's ...

The Useful Idiot

The Kremlin's interest in Trump apparently dates back to 1987. He first visited Moscow that year, ostensibly to research building two luxury hotels. No sooner did Trump return to New York than he took out full page ads in major newspapers assailing NATO allies for not providing enough for their "common defense," accusing them of being "non-dues paying allies." He went onto question the purpose of NATO and repeated a number of Soviet talking points. It's always been easy to bend Trump's ear, especially if you present your desired aims in a way that is favorable to his interests. He has long seen politics as an extension of his real estate empire, one largely cultivated in his own mind, but substantial enough to attract Soviet and later Russian interest. For decades, Russian oligarchs laundered their ill-gotten gains through his numerous properties, keeping him afloat despite the enormous debt burden he had incurred. As a result, Trump was favorabl...

The Bough Breaks

One of the biggest frustrations among Lithuanian citizens is that the government hasn't done enough to prepare for the prospect of a Russian invasion. In Vilnius, we don't have a vast underground metro system like they have in Kyiv. All we have are basements, which aren't very bombproof if the Kremlin decides to launch air strikes on Vilnius in the near future. There are some old bunkers that were built during Soviet times but they haven't been kept up and are now infested with vermin. One journalist investigated these bunkers four years ago and the images were appalling . Most of these bunkers date from the Cold War. Some go back to between the world wars. You can even visit an old nuclear missile base in the northwest part of the country, which we did a few years ago. It probably looks better than any other underground facility thanks largely to it being a popular tourist destination for Lithuanians and foreigners alike. How...

The Tariff King

We're not even one month into His Orangeness' term and already the trade wars have begun. Trump has managed to alienate our closest neighbors and allies ten days into his administration. This will not only increase inflation but lead to significantly higher prices at the pump as we get the majority of our imported oil from Canada and Mexico. Thirty-plus years of a North American Free Trade Agreement, better known as NAFTA, goes down the drain to placate the petty grievances of a deeply addled man, driven by a group of advisors who seem to want to blow up the economy. Is this what voters wanted when they pulled the lever for his Orangeness in November? You really can't say you didn't see this coming as Trump promised tariffs. He wanted to be the Tariff King. He sees it as a way of hard bargaining but you have to have an inordinate amount of leverage to bargain like this. Given the trade deficits we have with virtually all our major trading partners, I...

Mourning again in America

Aren't they sweet? You would almost think it was a Fourth of July celebration if it wasn't for the MAGA handbags and the heavy black coats. An estimated 20,000 persons are lining the streets of Washington for Trump's inauguration parade. A much smaller number than he hoped for, but thanks to the Arctic chill few people are braving the cold on this winter day in the nation's capital. Trump will take his inauguration indoors to avoid the cold, only the second time in recent decades. It was Ronald Reagan who coined the phrased " Morning again in America " during the 1984 campaign, and had his second inauguration in the Rotunda of the Capitol building. It was only 7 degrees Fahrenheit then. About 20 degrees colder than it is today in Washington. At least there was a tone of optimism as the economy had started to improve in 1985. Today, it is hard to view Trump's second inauguration as anything other than a negation of everything our country st...