Dispatches from Vilnius

It seems we are all supposed to sing Hosanna in the Highest now that Trump has killed the notorious Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.  He gave a 48-minute speech  honoring his great achievement, an achievement like the United States has never known, least not since the killing of Osama bin Laden.  In his declaration, he provided gruesome details of the infamous ISIS leader's death, claiming he "died like a dog." The White House desperately needed something to counter all the bad press it has received following Trump's withdrawal from Northern Syria, which created a power vacuum that Turkey and Russia soon filled.  One wouldn't be surprised if Turkish forces tipped the US military on the whereabouts of Baghdadi, giving Trump a chance to save face. The radical imam has been floating about for well over a decade.  He was detained at Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca back in 2004 but apparently wasn't considered enough of a threat to hold indefinitely.  However, he quickl...

It must be an incredible feeling to stage these political stunts, knowing that your base will buy it hook, line and sinker.  We saw three shameless displays the past two days, starting with the House Republicans staging what I guess can be called a sit-in at the secure room of the impeachment inquiry taking place.  They blatantly defied all the rules of protocol, afterward proudly crowing before cameras of their effort to make the inquiry public. As CNN and other mainstream news networks pointed out, there is nothing new about these secure hearings.  The Republicans did the exact same thing when putting together their case against Hillary Clinton over her role in Benghazi.  But, these Radical Republicans led by the blockhead Representative of Florida, Matt Gaetz, either weren't around then or simply didn't care.  CNN tried to corner one of them, Mo Brooks of Alabama, only to get a senseless diatribe on due process. Trump badly wants to know what is goi...

Watching the US armored trucks being pelted with potatoes as they rolled out of Northern Syria was really a sad sight.  Our once vaunted military, one Donald Trump boasts endlessly about, retreating from a crisis because it was no longer in the President's best interests to remain engaged in the nominal Kurdish homeland.  Even worse, he ceded the bargaining over the region to Turkey and Russia with Erdogan and Putin meeting in Sochi.  There was no US presence at this historic meeting despite having spent five years providing logistic and military support to the Kurds in our mutual battle with ISIS.  Trump had conceded any role the US had to Turkey when he sent Pence and Pompeo to negotiate a five-day cease fire, which turned out to be the time US forces needed to pull out of Syria, leaving the embattled region to be split among Turkish and Russian forces.  American fighter planes bombed US bases, hoping to destroy as much of the munitions they had left...

Trump sounded like a kid whose parents wouldn't let him host a party at the house , after Republicans met with Mick Mulvaney over the weekend and told him to get the White House in order.  Mulvaney has the thankless job of being the interim Chief of Staff. No one has versed the president on the emoluments clause of the Constitution, or any other part of it, so that left it up to Anderson Cooper to school him .  Throughout the telecast of Trump's speech during a cabinet meeting, CNN was fact checking the president, who ran rough shot over the Constitution.  As Cooper pointed out, he acts as if he is still in full control of his properties, which is a direct violation of the emoluments clause. Of course, when you leave the estate to Donnie Jr. and Eric, it is easy to understand why Trump would be concerned.  Income at his world famous Doral Club has dropped 69% over the last two years , and it was badly in need of a lift.  Little wonder this club popped f...

Mark Zuckerberg recently claimed it is not his job to clean up hate speech on his platform.  Yet, try to post a picture of a naked woman on fb and see if you don't get warned or have your user privileges revoked for 30 days.  That happened to me when I shared Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland UK album cover  with friends after finally finding a copy I could afford. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal , it is pretty clear what Zuckerberg loves most is money. He rakes in huge advertising dollars from political as well as commercial campaigns that see the value in harvesting data and spreading their message on fb.  He's not about to give up on that revenue generator, no matter how egregiously misleading the political ads become.  He's also making no attempt to crack down on the companies that mine fb for personal data, which is how CA was able to gather information on over 50 million fb users, more than enough to create an emotional profile for virtually e...

Of all the things that would bring Trump down, who would have thought Ukraine would be his weak point?  The recent arrest of two thuggish Giuliani "associates" is yet another chapter in the saga of Trump's "secret diplomacy" with Ukraine to get dirt on Joe Biden.  These guys were apparently helping to funnel foreign money into Republican campaigns, namely Donald Trump. These two goons couldn't have made their efforts more obvious, lunching with Rudy Giuliani at Trump's Washington International Hotel before trying to board a plane at Dulles with one-way tickets to Kiev.  I guess they figured their job was done for the time being and wanted to lay low for awhile.  Now, Giuliani finds himself under investigation and may very well find himself served with an indictment in the coming days. Stupid Watergate just gets more stupid.  You just can't believe a President would be so open about his crimes.  He admitted straight to George Stephanopolous ...

One of the fantasies driving Evangelists is that God chooses all sorts of flawed persons to carry out his missions.  Moses had killed an Egyptian.  Jacob got drunk and ran around naked in his tent for Ham to see.  Noah was apparently a flawed person as well, although he didn't get drunk until after the flood.  So, why not Donald Trump? It seems many Evangelists believe God has chosen Trump for a specific reason.  The most prevalent one is that he will usher in the apocalypse they have long waited for, resulting in the millennial reign of Jesus. So, it is not like they really love Trump, but rather see him as an agent of change.  Something Trump obviously doesn't quite understand, as he likes to project himself as both the "Chosen One" and the " King of Israel ." For decades, Millennialists have been looking for the US, and in turn the world, to crumble into a big giant ash heap.  Their support of Israel has nothing to do with any specific lov...

You have to hand it to Dirty Don.  In one week he has managed to piss off just about everyone around him, even Pat Robertson, one of his most ardent supporters.  This is the  "Mandate of Heaven " we are talking about here!  Of course, it is not the scandal swirling around his call to the Ukraine president that bothers Rev. Pat.  It is the fact that his dear president is siding with Erdogan in Syria and has looked the other way in regard to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.  You can't be sleeping with those Muslim infidels if you want God on your side. However, it is his gaslighting on the Ukraine issue that has most people appalled.  Trump seems to believe it is his prerogative to investigate anyone he pleases and to ask countries for help even if said person is a political opponent challenging him in next year's election.  What seemed like a "perfect call," is looking anything but perfect now that more whistleblowers with first hand informat...

Bernie should take that heart attack as a warning sign and drop out of the election immediately.  He can throw his support behind Liz Warren, who promotes the same issues, or simply wait until the primaries start to back a candidate.  This vanity project is over.  He had no business running for president in the first place, as there were more than enough candidates to push progressive issues, which was his biggest complaint last time around.  Bernie being Bernie, he is right back on the campaign trail, sort of anyway, issuing policy statements from his bed that echo those of Liz Warren. Joe Biden has even less reason to be running, as he represents nothing.  He is like one of those "wish sandwiches:" two slices of white bread that you wish you had something between.  From the start he has presented himself as Mr. Congeniality, the guy who can unite all the disparate forces in the Democratic Party and beat Trump.  Unfortunately for him, polls sh...

Roger Vadim was on the outs with Jane Fonda at the time he made Pretty Maids .  It appears she hadn't forgiven him for Barbarella , as she wanted no part of this sexploitation high school movie that would have been better directed by Russ Meyer or Roger Corman.  Vadim knew nothing about America, nor did he really care.  That was made painfully obvious with the young protagonist, Ponce, riding up to Oceanfront High School on a Vespa.  I suppose LA was like the French Riviera for Vadim. He had been a big name in the 60s on the edge of the French New Wave.  His films were always about sex, but had enough of an edge to qualify as art house movies.  He was probably most famous for introducing Brigitte Bardot to the world in And God Created Woman .  He also introduced us to Catherine Deneuve and Annette Stroyberg.  He had quite a way with ladies. That is also the case with his aging school counselor, Tiger McDrew, played by Rock Hudson,...

The young Norwegian teen is taking America by storm as she circumnavigates the country.  In Iowa, she joined an impromptu climate strike led by a local teen, Massimo Biggers, who never bargained for his surprise guest and such a big turnout.  Her primary aim is to reach teens in the country, although she has been feted by adults as well.  Arnold Schwarzenegger offered her one of his electric cars for the trip up to Canada, where she met Prime Minister Trudeau, and was quite stern with him as to what more he can do to battle climate change.  The impact has been far and wide, drawing thinly veiled rebukes from Trump and Putin, with her giving them shade in return. Greta began this adventure by taking a solar and wind powered racing yacht to New York, as she refused to take an airplane because of the enormous carbon emissions the airline industry produces each year.  She gave a fiery speech at the UN , castigating the general assembly for not doing enough...

It appears the Republicans thought the Democrats were bluffing in regard to an impeachment trial.  Kevin McCarthy, the GOP minority leader in the House, was caught completely off guard when questioned about the transcript of the ill-fated phone call Trump had with Ukrainian President Zelensky.  He tripped over his own words in stumbling to come up with the meaning of "though" in Trump's request to the Ukrainian president to look into a long debunked theory that one of the country's "wealthy people" has the DNC server, which was hacked into in 2016 by Russia. McCarthy appeared oblivious to the enormity of these allegations, continuing to dismiss them while having his own doubts.  This is the case across the board as Republicans scramble to pull Trump from the grave he dug for himself.  The only problem is that Trump wants to drag them all in with him.  It didn't take him long to throw both Mike Pence and Bill Barr under the bus, implicating the...