Dispatches from Vilnius

I first heard about the "Mandela Effect" from my daughter.  I thought she meant Mandala but she insisted it was Mandela.  Sure enough a "paranormal consultant" penned the term in 2010 to describe how alternate memories can be retained by perhaps thousands of people.  It doesn't matter that he was released from prison in 1990, a major story covered by all the international press, or that he went on to become President of South Africa from 1994-1999, many persons insist they saw television clips of his funeral back in the 80s. So, were there two Nelson Mandelas or is it just memory playing tricks on us?  This is what The X-Files explored in its most recent episode, The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat, which will renew your faith in Chris Carter.   It was a humdinger of an episode that has a lot of fun with the concept of "false memory." The best character is Dr. They , a mysterious little man who long ago figured out how to play with memories and rec

If you are like me, listening to Trump is the equivalent of having someone run his nails across an old chalkboard.  Apparently that was the case for many who were forced to listen to him at Davos as he made his pitch to the world.  As a journalist, you have to cover him no matter how painful it is. Trump wasted no time bashing Clinton, claiming if she had been elected the stock markets would have crashed.  Of course, we have no way of knowing, but most likely they would have still reached record heights, as Trump inherited an economy on the rise with the stock market already at a record high.  Not that the Dow is the best indicator of an economic recovery, as conservative pundits told us throughout the Obama administration.  But now that Trump is President the Dow is once again regarded as the top economic indicator.  Just listen to Richard Quest crow about the stock markets.  In a few years we can expect Quest to be filling Lou Dobbs seat at Fox. A lot of persons are surpri

Mike Pence was in Israel these past few days, assuring the government of America's unwavering support.  The trip served no real purpose other than re-stating the Trump administration's position on Jerusalem and offering a few photo opportunities for our Vice-President, although he seemed to be pondering the enormity of it all at the Western Wall before returning to the United States. It is safe to say there will be no meaningful negotiations over the next three years.  To be fair, Obama didn't do much in this regard either.  Ever since the War in Iraq and the Rise of ISIS, Palestinians have been relegated to the back pages of political discussion.  Hard to believe that at one time "Peace in Israel" was the number one foreign policy issue.  I guess Dubya did succeed in shifting American FP a little further to the East. Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders have no time for Mike Pence or Jared Kushner or anyone else Trump sends to the Levant.  Abbas

I don't know what's more a joke, the White House or Mitch McConnell trying to blame this shutdown on the Democrats?  The last minute measure the House Republicans tossed in the Senate lap would have only kept the government open for another four weeks, so it wasn't any solution at all, especially given nothing fundamentally changes now that government has "shutdown."  All essential services are still in place.  Even the national parks are still open.  Basically, non-essential workers have a temporary layoff, to be reimbursed later once Congress finally settles on a spending bill. Yet, Donald Trump and his surrogates tried their best to throw the blame on the Democrats for this impasse, despite his saying time and again what this country needs is a "good shutdown."  Careful what you wish for. Chuck Schumer took a calculated risk but one that should pay off big time for the Democrats, as the Republicans own this shutdown because of their unwillin

A looming government shutdown doesn't keep the Donald away from the golf course .  He's off to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend while Congresspersons desperately try to reach an agreement on a budget.  Whatever spending bill Congress cobbles together will have to have his imprimatur, but I guess he figures no deal will be reached so why waste my time in this shithole when I could be in sunny Florida. This last-minute scrambling is the result of Trump's  hasty decision back in September to scrap DACA.  He was so desperate to have his wall that he figured he could force Congress to act on it.  Instead, Congress kicked the budget down the road, which I'm sure is what they will do today as well, as there appears to be no agreement.  For the time being, Dreamers have been saved by the federal courts , but this is just a stop-gap measure until Congress has the guts to deal with immigration. For his part, Chuck Schumer has said having Tom Cotton and Dave Perdue on the Sena

This is starting to resemble a behavioral experiment from the 60s with Republicans ganging up on Dick Durbin and trying to convince him that he didn't hear what he heard last Thursday.  There were at least ten persons in the room when Trump made his comments on immigration reform, including seven senators.  Durbin was the lone Democrat. After hearing the comments, Durbin immediately went public.  After some time, Lindsey Graham, who is working with Durbin on a compromise solution to save DACA, supported him.  But, no other Republican in the room would substantiate the comments, and on Sunday Dave Perdue and Tom Cotton flatly repudiated Dick Durbin's statement.  This is a little odd because Friday the two conservative senators simply said they couldn't recall Trump saying "shithole countries."  For his part, Trump has since said he wishes he had recorded the meeting, noting "unfortunately, no trust!" This is quite telling.  Did Trump honestly ex

I suppose Trump's beef with the embassy in London and "shithole" countries around the world is nothing more than a distraction for Republicans unwilling or unable to come to the table to discuss a bipartisan immigration bill.  After all, they had been down this road before in 2013 and it wasn't pretty, so why not let Trump fly off the handle and avoid even discussing such a bill in a hotly contested election year. Trump let his "shithole" comment linger in the air like a fart for the better part of 15 hours before finally trying to deny he said it.  The only problem is that everyone heard him, and at best the Republicans who were in the room with him can only claim they didn't hear it.  That didn't stop Democrats from responding , and even Lindsey Antebellum has finally come forward to say yes, Trump said it. Dear old Lindsey wanted to make himself the Republican point man on the new immigration bill, but even he appeared to have second tho

After her Golden Globes speech , Oprah is the most talked about person on television.  She brought the auditorium to its feet with as she recounted how Recy Taylor bucked the system back in 1944, and her impressions of Sidney Pottier winning the Oscar for Lilies of the Field .  It was a life-affirming speech like the ones Barack Obama enjoyed giving and the parallel was not lost on anyone.  Many persons started chanting Oprah for President that evening. Why not?  Any thoughts that experience matters were thrown out the window when Donald J. Trump won the office last year.  This seemed to be the only thing holding Oprah back.  Now she just says, "oh, oh." Americans no longer place much value on a candidate's resume, at least when it comes to serving in government.  We have become extremely cynical, believing that a politician is only in it for the money.  Jokes abound like the one where politicians should wear patches of their corporate sponsors like race car driv

or any Republican for that matter Cory Gardner took exception to Jeff Sessions switch on marijuana.  The Colorado senator claims that Sessions promised he wouldn't go after state legalized cannabis but it seems the Attorney General has had a change of heart.  Sessions has long made it known he doesn't like all this pot being made freely available, and it was only a matter of time before he used his federal authority to contain it.  He not only has the blessing of Trump but many state governors, who have  file suits against states that have legalized pot. The problem goes well beyond marijuana.  Gardner wants to present himself as a moderate Republican by voicing his libertarian view on pot.  This is similar to Rand Paul, who has also been pro-pot.  But, these senators have no problem going after health care and other issues that blur state and federal lines.  Both voted for the tax cuts bill that will eliminate federal mandates for buying state and federal heal

The Republicans are determined to protect Trump The White House likes to push the stories going into the weekend, usually through Trump's tweets, but this weekend the only news is coming from the pages of Fire and Fury .  For his part, Trump tried to put on his best presidential demeanor before being shuttled by helicopter to Camp David, where he said he would discuss his agenda with ranking Congressional Republicans.  He left a list of demands for Democrats, if they want to save the DACA program.  Not surprisingly, Democratic leaders see these demands as a non-starter. Just the same, CNN devoted virtually its entire programming last night to the book's many allegations, trying to walk a thin line down the middle, in which journalists questioned the veracity of some of Wolff's claims, while giving credence to others.  The talk show panels broke down the way you would expect, with condemnation from conservative pundits and modest praise from liberal pundits. No

If His Trumpness thought he might catch a break at the start of the New Year, he was sadly mistaken.  Michael Wolff has literally pulled the lid off the boiling cauldron that is the Trump White House, offering up a number of juicy anecdotes taken from Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn and even Ivanka, regarding the effort it takes to make her father's hair stand on its own. The evil Dr. Bannon has pretty much confirmed everything Wolff printed in his name, and added more scintillating stories of his own.  This led a livid Donald Trump to dump on his former strategist after having tried to pretend there was no bad blood between them.  It seems Bannon's prime targets are the Trump offspring and in-laws, calling out Jared, Ivanka and Donnie Jr. each in turn.  Not surprising, since he was never able to win their affection, not that he wanted it.  What he wanted was complete control over the Trump White House to carry out his nationalistic agenda, something "Javanka" wa

Somehow the NFL managed to survive Trump and the millions of Americans who vowed to boycott the league this past year.  It was around week 12 that Trump lost interest in the national anthem protests, posting a rather lame tweet on November 28 that drew little attention.  X-fans were no longer bombarding the message boards with their faux outrage over the protests, and overall attendance at games remained pretty much the same as in 2016.  The Los Angeles teams had been suffering for lack of fan base, but as the Rams and Chargers playoff prospects improved, so did attendance.  The only place the NFL seemed to suffer was on television, where ratings had dipped, but by December things were pretty much back to normal as the playoff race heated up. Still, there seemed to be something missing this year.  There wasn't as much excitement even as new teams like Jacksonville and Tennessee emerged as playoff contenders in the AFC, while Philadelphia and Minnesota made surprisingly stro