Dispatches from Vilnius

Apparently the incoming freshmen class of Democratic representatives is causing some consternation among the old guard, including those departing because they were unable to hold onto their seats.  A bitter Claire McCaskill vented her frustration at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, calling her a "shiny object."  Nancy Pelosi seems to think pretty much the same way, greatly reducing the scope of the climate panel that Alexandria championed and putting Kathy Castor in charge, rather than one of the new Democrats who pushed for a Green New Deal . Why all this resistance to youth, which clearly drove the blue wave in November?  It seems that our elder, more experienced legislators have gotten very comfortable in their seats and don't like young upstarts who knock out 10-term Democratic incumbents in the primaries, as Alexandria did.  Basically, these old farts fear for their own seats in upcoming elections.  Unfortunately for them it may very well become a self-ful...

Day 8 of the government shutdown and no one seems to be blinking.  Trump now threatens to close the Mexico border and cancel trade deals if he doesn't get his wall in his puerile attempt to up the ante.  This after a surprise visit to Iraq to show he can actually go to a "war zone," despite his long-standing bone spurs .  That must have been a bitter inconvenience for him as he hates not spending the night in one of his signature mattresses but then they probably have one on Air Force One. The Toddler-in-Chief is determined to carry his protest through the New Year, canceling a planned party at Mar-a-Lago.  I'm sure his family will be sadly disappointed.  What's amusing about the whole thing is that it is entirely unnecessary.  All Trump needed to do was push Congress to update the Secure Fence Act of 2006 when he first came into office, changing the name to Secure Wall Act.  50 billion dollars was set aside over a 25 year period to improve...

Anyone hoping for a Scrooge epiphany from Trump on Christmas morning is sadly disappointed.  The President is still the same ill-tempered manchild he was before  holing himself up in the White House in a pathetic effort to elicit sympathy from the public for the wall he so badly wants in the New Year. In a surprise move, Trump chose to forgo his trip to Mar-a-Lago to stage what has basically turned into a sit-in strike to get Senate Democrats to accede to his demand for $5 billion in the temporary spending bill for his wall.  He managed to get the Senate Republicans on board, most of them anyway.  Outgoing Bob Corker called Trump's  pathetic stand a "made-up fight." Trump tweeted through out Christmas Eve as he wallowed in self pity.  At one point he forced Melania to sit beside him to field calls from children.  He couldn't even get through this simple task without questioning a 7-year old's belief in Santa .  Did I already say ...

Our president has dug in his heels like a three-year-old toddler and refuses to budge on the wall.  We can thank his talk show nannies, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh for this impasse , as he refused to listen to reason and sign a temporary spending bill that would have avoided a government shutdown.  His right-wing base is like that little devil on his shoulder saying, do it, do it! It's not like government will actually shutdown.  Federal employees just won't get their checks until the spending bill is approved.  More a nasty inconvenience than anything else, as many of these workers were counting on their checks to carry them through the holidays.  Now, they have to put all their Christmas purchases on their charge cards. Trump says he is prepared to shutdown government for a long time if he doesn't get his wall.  It's not like $5.7 billion will go far.  The wall is estimated to cost no less than $25 billion.  It's the principle that co...

I don't know if it is just me or the annual War on Christmas seems more subdued this year.  I suppose Fox is too busy trying to figure out what's up with Santa-in-Chief to give the air space they usually do for Christmas.  Trump backing down on the Wall really has them flummoxed.  Steve Doocey and his friends were  beside themselves  over the Democrats winning the battle over the government shutdown, lamenting that the President won't get squat for the wall now.  No need to worry, GoFundMe pages have been started to bail Trump out. Meanwhile, the US State Department has promised Mexico and other beleaguered Central American states a whopping $10.6 billion Christmas gift in the way of development aid.  This has conservatives even more upset than Trump bailing on the wall.  Maybe he's disguising the wall as development aid.  Approximately $5 billion is earmarked for Mexico alone? Even more perplexing is his  recent decision to ...

Donald has been watching too many mobster movies.  You really have to wonder about his choice of language in going after Cohen -- the fixer turned flipper.  Trump isn't alone in conjuring up 1930s gangsterspeak, as the news media reports on the sinking Trump administration as they would a crumbling mafia dynasty. You can recast the scene above with Trump as Cagney, Melania and Ivanka as the two women, and Michael Cohen as the "rat" hiding in the closet.  Mueller and the FBI come barging in before Trump gets the chance to pull the trigger.  This seems to be the way we view the White House these days. It's not just the Russian ties or his shady financial deals, Trump is in over his bulging eyeballs with a wide variety of questionable activities and is having an especially hard time shaking himself clean.  He may be immune from New York City indicting him over tax fraud, but that doesn't mean the district attorney can't go after his children, who share ...

Trump being a showman, I would have thought he knew the best thing going for him was a mysterious Melania, but after a couple interviews the mystery is gone.  Now we just have your bargain store variety model doing lingerie ads for JC Penney.  The Greta Garbo act worked much better for her. Not only is Melania not very bright, she isn't very sympathetic either.  She supports both her husband and his policies, which is odd given she is a relatively recent immigrant.  We were told that her infamous jacket was just her way at getting back at the press for  bullying her so much .  In her most  recent interview  with Fox's resident bully boy, she went after the press again, largely because Sean baited her into it. Melania feels the press is nothing more than a bunch of "opportunists who are using my name."  Needless to say, the irony was missed as it is pretty hard to consider her anymore than an opportunist who saw a good thing in Donal...

 or It's a manhood thing, you wouldn't understand Our President loves a good show .  He had hoped to put Chuck and Nancy on the spot, make them cave to his demands in front of a live national audience.  For some reason, he thought he held the upper hand in negotiations over a year-end budget that should have been done months ago, but dragged because of his insistence on funding for his notorious wall. Some Republicans are willing to give him this wall, notably Ted Cruz, who had to solicit Trump's aid to hold onto his Texas Senate seat.  But, Chuck and Nancy know the numbers don't favor Trump.  Many Republicans have no more interest in this wall than do Democrats, and it is doubtful such a spending bill will get through the House, let alone the Senate, where he needs 60 votes. In typical Trump fashion, he laid out his hand for all to see, thinking he had a royal flush, but he had nothing.  Mike Pence sat like an elf on the shelf, listing to one...

The NFL is really hard to figure out.  Colin Kaepernick remains unsigned after two years, but the Redskins dug deep to bring Josh Johnson out of retirement to relieve Mark Sanchez in a miserable performance this past Sunday.  Johnson hadn't had an NFL football snap since 2012, and had to quickly learn his teammate's names after being signed last week when Colt McCoy went down. Dan Snyder had no problem signing Reuben Foster, who had been released by San Francisco as a result of domestic violence charges.  But, it was ixnay on Kaepernick when McCoy crumbled to the ground two weeks ago.  Instead, the Redskins went with Sanchez who has roved around the league almost as much as Johnson.  Mark is probably most famous for his butt fumble against New England three years ago, and for pissing away Philadelphia's playoff chances two years ago when Carson Wentz went down.   The Redskins were sitting pretty a few weeks ago at 6-3 atop in the NFC East....

This was probably the high point of Trump's week -- tossing the coin at the annual Army-Navy game this weekend.  The coin toss was the only thing Navy won in that game, as Army stuffed the Midshipmen in a 17-10 win, capping off another great season. It's been a rocky ride for the President ever since the midterm elections.  There's been a lot of talk  the new Democrat-led House committees will open up investigations of everything from his tax returns to his complicity in the Khashoggi murder to the never-ending Russian probe.  By all accounts, Special Counsel Mueller is closing in on the Trump family and many expect indictments to be handed to members of the Trump family, namely Donnie Jr. and Jared.  This has the President resorting to twitter to plead his case once again to the American people in all caps - NO COLLUSION! I don't know how much of this is wish fulfillment or that Mueller finally has the goods on the Trumps.  He's been working on t...

Once again we see a hagiography being written for a venerable elder statesman.  This time George Herbert Walker Bush.  Historians as well as the mainstream media have either forgotten or are conveniently sidestepping the more onerous aspects of his administration out of deference to a 94 year-old man.  Not even any mention of the amusing groping incidents that were revealed last year, for which the former president apologized .  All told, eight women accused him of inappropriate behavior. However, there are far worse allegations that can be leveled at George H.W. Bush, namely his role in propping up Manuel Noriega in Panama when he served as CIA Chief for President Ford between January 1976 and 1977.  It's hard to say how much Bush was aware of Noriega's double dealing, but he didn't do anything about it.  Republicans gave the dictator carte blanche in his war on communism, even if that meant looking the other way as he helped funnel drugs for Pabl...

I'm so glad Bill and Hillary saved this farewell tour for after the midterms, otherwise they would have dragged the Democrats down with their pompous display of hubris .   I guess they think we still owe them something, but judging from the prices who can afford to go to these events except rich bankers and NYTimes columnists like Maureen Dowd, who gave her two cents  on the inaugural show in Toronto.  They were greeted by rows of empty seats with those few who came herded up front to make it look like they had an audience.  Given how few came, they could meet and greet virtually everyone there.  Maybe they will get a bigger crowd at the Beacon Theater in their hometown New York next April.  I doubt the Sugarland crowd in Texas will be anymore welcoming than the Canadians for their final gig of the year. What really has to gall the Clintons is that Michelle Obama is packing in crowds for her book tour , selling more copies in 15 days than Hill...