Dispatches from Vilnius

I'm surprised Trump didn't find a way to politicize the death of Fats Domino.  He politicized almost everything else last week including what should have been a simple Halloween trick or treat session with the kids of the White House press corps. Many already thought Fats Domino was long gone until he was discovered in flooded New Orleans.  He had been awarded a National Medal of Arts by Bill Clinton in 1998, but Fats had pretty much disappeared from the music scene.  He wasn't touring.  There appeared to be little interest in his music with only a handful of compilations available on CD.  There was no great tribute band for him like there had been for Chuck Berry, B.B. King and others from his era.  Fats was living a quiet life in the lower ninth ward until Katrina hit. His rescue became front page news and soon artists were scrambling to put together a tribute to him, releasing Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino , which included Robert Plant,...

Just when the media had Trump on the hook, they got distracted and let him go.  Once again, we are back to Hillary.  This time in relation to the Steele Dossier, a report initially commissioned by Republican opposition in the primaries and eventually funded by Democratic opposition during the general election. We knew about this dossier since at least October 2016 when Mother Jones ran a story on it, but news of this infamous report had been leaked to the press long before.  In it, Christopher Steele, a former MI6 intelligence officer, outlines how Russia had Donald Trump by the balls, to put it bluntly, but some of what was in the report seemed too far-fetched to use on the campaign trail and so the report was shelved. Then in January 2017, shortly before Trump was inaugurated, Buzzfeed published the entire report, which was roundly criticized by the national media, claiming there was no substantiation to the allegations.  But, the FBI was interested in i...

It seems Harvey Weinstein's and James Toback's "casting couch" is being taken to the cleaners as many women have come out with their stories of sexual abuse these past two weeks.  The most vociferous has been Rose McGown , who claimed she was raped by Weinstein and subsequently gagged when she settled her sexual abuse case out of court.  She has vented her anger not just on Weinstein, but Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and George Clooney as well, who she said were fully aware of Harvey's sexual predation. All three  Hollywood A-listers have since offered mea culpas of sorts, saying they should have exposed Weinstein long ago, but it is hard to bite the hand that feeds you.  True for many women as well, although they had sufficient reason to fear they would be blacklisted, as Rose says she was anyway.  No one wants to work with a "difficult actress." It all began with the sagas of Bill Cosby and Roman Polanski, both notorious womanizers.  The first ...

I stumbled across an article this morning which tries to explain why Trump is still fighting with Frederica Wilson and Myeshia Johnson.  Simple enough explanation -- "he's a cruel bigot."  The article references a piece Nate Silver wrote at the end of last month when Trump was similarly engaged in a twitter war with Carmen Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Silver added irrational and incompetent. Nate said there is no point looking for some broader story, as Rachel Maddow and other liberal conspiracy theorists do.  The truth of the matter is that we are dealing with a man-toddler prone to impulsive outbursts, especially when criticized for his rude behavior.  Silver noted an ominous trend in the targets: women and minorities. However, Trump hasn't been very kind to white males either.  He continues his feud with John McCain, has been particularly harsh on Bob Corker, and has hurled all kinds of abuse at Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan....

My daughter got me hooked on American Horror Story, which I'm beginning to regret.  The newest season, Cult , started out well enough with a Michigan town under siege by a demented clown posse.  However, it has taken so many twists and turns that whatever political message it had is awash in so much carnage that it no longer seems to really matter who is behind the masks. It is tough to make any sense of the events since "119," the morning after Trump's unprecedented victory.  The series peaked at episode four and it has been all downhill since as the creative team doesn't seem to know where to go next.  What had been an intriguing gang of misfits appears to have morphed into a white supremacy group now that the fearless ringleader has gotten the blessing of Eric Trump. Trumpkins aren't at all happy with the series as they see themselves openly portrayed as a "basket of deplorables."  I suppose they can take some solace from the fact that t...

In more ways than one Frederica Wilson exposed the White House.  We all know Trump is an asshole, but to this point many thought Gen. Kelly was one of the few sane persons in his administration, trying to bring some order to the White House.  That all flew out the window this past week. Not only did Kelly allow Trump to politicize the death of his son in response to the media questioning the president's sincerity when it came to providing comfort to Gold Star families, but tried to play Trump's hatchet man in regard to Congresswoman Wilson's condemnation of his commander's brusque response to a war widow in Miami, who she happened to personally know. The former general was wrong on so many levels that probably his best course at this point is to resign.  He hasn't been able to bring order to the White House and now he has revealed himself to be little more than a stooge, willing to do anything to protect the president.  Gen. Kelly had been noncommittal ...

Receiving the news that he had been downgraded to #248 on the Fortune 500 List, Donald Trump was livid.  "What is this fake news!  I'm worth at least $10 billion," he yelled to everyone with in earshot.  "Where did they get these figures anyway?  I didn't release my tax returns." We spent the rest of the day trying to calm him down, which was why he was in no mood to deal with sending condolences to Gold Star families.  "If anyone should be getting condolences it should be me for this incredibly sad news.  Pathetic.  Cut my subscription to Forbes right now," he shouted. Gen. Kelly persevered, saying it is important to talk to grieving spouses and parents.  They want to know you care for them.  "Oh, all right, give me the phone," snatching it out of the general's hand.  It was all he could do to feign sentiments, so when he got to Myeshia Johnson he was rather brusque. He referred to her husband as "your guy" ...

Who knew a small city in Palestine could madden American officials so much that they chose to pull out of UNESCO, the educational, scientific and cultural wing of the UN.  The bone of contention wasn't so much putting Hebron's Old City on the World Heritage List, but treating it as a part of Palestine. Back in the 1980s ,  the United States similarly was upset with UNESCO, which it felt had grown too big for its britches with over 160 member countries.  All these new members diluted the "original intent" of the organization to act as a cultural propaganda arm of the United States during the Cold War.  After all, the US footed most of the bill and expected UNESCO to act in its best interests. The US didn't return to UNESCO until 2002, which Olivia Waxman feels once again was politically motivated as the Bush administration was looking to build an international coalition against Afghanistan and Iraq.  I suppose he felt that after the Taliban had destroyed...

Donald Trump is like those pop-ads that keep appearing in the margins of the web page.  No matter how many times you press the X button to get rid of them they just keep reappearing.  The guy certainly knows how to keep himself in the news. Having failed to get any legislation passed regarding health care, Trump is now going after the ACA by executive order , cutting subsidies and making it that much more difficult for low-income families to have access to health insurance.  For a man who said that Obamacare was killing itself, he sure is going out of his way to speed up the process. Of course, the Donald doesn't think of any of this on his own.  He has a core of advisers preparing these executive orders for him to sign, notably Stephen Miller.  Tom Price is no longer around to guide him on health care, not that the president had very much interest in it anyway.  Trump simply wants to undo everything Obama accomplished in his eight years as preside...

"I think it's fake news, but if he did that, I guess we'll have to compare IQ tests.  And I can tell you who is going to win." Just when you thought it couldn't get any more ..... moronic in the White House, His Trumpness challenged Rex Tillerson to an IQ test.  Sarah Huck-Huck-Huckabee says the Prez was only joking but CNN's Brooke Baldwin counted at least 22 times when Mr. Trump flaunted his self-proclaimed high IQ.  Mensa has offered to put the two to the test as it has no record of either Trump or Tillerson in its High IQ Society. This was just the beginning of another calamitous week for the Trump White House.  Earlier, he got into a row with Bob Corker over his proposed tax cuts, upset that the Tennessee senator found fault with his plan.  This led to a nasty exchange in which Trump claimed "Liddle Bob" came to him for an endorsement in 2018, which he refused, and then Corker subsequently chose to retire.  On top of that Big Donald...

This past weekend, Mike Pence attended an Indianapolis game seemingly for the sole purpose of walking out after the national anthem when several Colts knelt on the sidelines.  Jerry Jones issued a surly statement that he would bench any player that didn't stand for the anthem.  This political grandstanding drew attention to struggling football teams.  Indianapolis needed overtime to get past winless San Francisco and Dallas got thumped by Green Bay. Maybe this was the " storm " Trump was referring to, as his White House is determined to win this battle with the NFL, using Pence as a proxy and allying Jerry Jones to its cause.  No other owners issued such an ultimatum.  You figure at some point, the NFL will reach a compromise with the players to end this stalemate that has drug into the fifth week of the season. It would probably go a long way if the owners quit blacklisting Colin Kaepernick, who was passed over last week by Brandon Weeden when the Te...

It was odd seeing Tom Petty's song tied into the Las Vegas massacre, with Jason Aldean playing I Won't Back Down on Saturday Night Live.  I suppose it was meant in good faith, but the two are in no way related. Petty spent much of his life battling the music industry over control of his songs, but with his death I suppose anything is fair game.  The Florida Gators similarly used the song during the break between the third and fourth quarters ostensibly as tribute to Tom Petty, but the athletic department said it hopes the song will become a "tradition."  Petty had no real relationship with UF other than working as a groundskeeper back in the 60's as a teen.  His band Mudcrutch played a few frat houses as well. Gainesville was a hip place to be in the 60s and early 70s.  Not only did the university town produce Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers but Don Felder, who would become a part of The Eagles.  The Great Southern Music Hall was a popular venue...

Sen. John Thune is taking a lot of flack for his comments on the Mandalay Bay Massacre, urging that "people are going to have to take steps in their own lives to take precautions ... as somebody said, 'get small.'"  Nothing wrong with his advice, but as the third highest ranking Senator, one would think he might be urging Congress to take action. Instead, the Republicans are taking a pass.  Even Steve Scalise, who only recently returned to the House chamber after being shot by a lone gunman at a Congressional softball game, said the Las Vegas shooting only "fortified" his views against gun control.  I think the NRA should be credited here, as he like so many of his fellow Republicans have been paid off by the National Rifle Association. Meanwhile, His Trumpness wasted no time getting to Vegas, offering a far more heartfelt speech than he did in San Juan the day before, and visiting survivors at the UNLV hospital.  I suppose by Trump's reckon...

It is safe to say that if the death of 20 elementary school children didn't lead to new gun laws, the death of 58 concert-goers aren't going to inspire any new legislation either.  We have created a war zone in this country, as this graph attests to:  1516 mass shootings in 1735 days.  Virtually no part of the country is safe.  Since July there were 58 persons killed in mass shootings before Stephen Paddock took out that number at a concert in Las Vegas. On the left we see the same urgency expressed for tighter gun restrictions, and on the right the same equivocation.  Never the twain shall meet because in the eyes of too many persons the second amendment is sacrosanct. The rest of the world shakes its head in wonder.  How can a country like the United States bring so much violence upon itself.  We have a staggering 33,000 gun-related deaths per year.  Most of them are suicides, but last year homicides topped 17,000 , a substantial jum...

With all the Viagra he has been taking, Hef probably died with a hard on.  It is difficult to feel much empathy for a man who spent his last years popping little blue tablets like skittles until he went deaf, just so he could satisfy himself with his harem of young women at his Playboy mansion in Los Angeles.  There was an initial outpouring of condolences from those closest to him, including a tearful video from Pamela Anderson.  Since then few tears have been shed for the " glorified pimp ." Hef liked to project himself as the man who emancipated women by ringing in the sexual revolution of the 60s, but to hear these women speak the Playboy mansion sounded like a Saudi Sheik's brokedown palace.  I guess after a certain age you just don't care that much about hygiene anymore. For the girls, this must have been hell because Hef no longer carried very much clout in Hollywood.  The days you could use a Playboy photo shoot to jump start your career were...