Dispatches from Vilnius

I didn't see that one coming.   I thought Bernie would pull off Nevada but not by 30 points.  It was a slaughter, with the moderates left to pick up the scraps in the state.  I'm fascinated by all these Latinos and Blacks turning Bernie's way.  I don't know what they expect to gain from his nomination, but I guess they think some of his "Democratic Socialism" will trickle their way. Bernie appears to have tapped into the same deep-seated anxieties among Social Liberals that Trump was able to tap among Religious Conservatives last time around, but is it enough to carry him through the primaries and beyond?  Many Democrats have taken the maximalist position on health care.  They want to see a single-payer system that has been dubbed "Medicare for All." On the surface, it only seems fair.  We pay into Social Security and Medicare with our very first paychecks, but aren't able to collect until we have one foot in the grave.  In the meantime,

It remains to be seen whether Liz Warren stuck a dagger in the heart of Mayor Bloomberg's "unpresidented" financially "yuge" campaign, but it does appear he took a big hit Wednesday night.  Anyone who thought the former New York Mayor and Megabillionaire would be the "man of the people" was sorely disappointed.  Old Bloom was just himself -- an arrogant billionaire who thought he could buy an election like he did in New York. Liz wasn't the only one to go after him.  All the Democrats did.  What's worse is that Bloomberg just stood there rolling his eyes, unable to offer any witty retort as he made no effort to prepare for the debate.  As expected, he tried to spin the debate the next day as a "win," but no one was buying it, except the facebook advertisement department. He's literally pouring a million dollars per day into facebook ads in an effort to win over the imaginary facebook audience.  His effort to make him lo

With his Senate acquittal, Trump literally takes a victory lap around Daytona, only to have the race postponed due to rain.  Nancy was sure to remind everyone that the stain of his impeachment can not be removed, but as far as our attention-grabbing president is concerned it no longer matters.  He is now free to do whatever he wants, and made sure to purge those pesky members of his administration who refused to heed his order not to testify so that there will be less rats in the kitchen. Like so many descents into autocracy, what appears comical at first increasingly becomes more tragic. There are still enough checks and balances to keep his administration relatively contained, but the big fear is that if Trump were to be re-elected in the Fall, that oversight would diminish to a whisper.  Not only would he be able to stack the federal courts with favorable judges but turn the Department of Justice into his Ministry of Vengeance, seeking charges on all those who he believes c

Many Americans have fallen in love with billionaires.  I don't know if it is because they like to believe some of that enormous fortune will trickle down to them, or if they imagine themselves rich one day and want the same tax breaks and other favors these billionaires get to live essentially rent-free in the state of their choice. The number of politicians and pundits endorsing Bloomberg has continued to grow.  The former mayor of the Big Apple is joining Stacey Abrams at a voting rights event in Georgia, where one presumes he will formally receive her endorsement.  She is a rising star in the Democratic Party after her hard-fought campaign for governor of the state in 2018, which she narrowly lost.  Many wanted her to run against David Perdue for a Senate seat, but she deferred.  Bloomberg also recently picked up Sam Donaldson's vote of confidence , whatever that's worth these days. Super Tuesday is shaping up to be boom or bust for Mike Bloomberg.  He has pla

Euphemisms abound when trying to come up with reasons not to like Pete Buttigieg.  Sister Amy Klobuchar keeps harping on his "inexperience."  Joe Biden has started to mock it, hoping to channel his Lloyd Bentsen moment .   At least Bernie Sanders went after Pete's "wine cave" donations . But, they are all hinting at the same thing - Pete won't win because no one will vote for an openly gay president. That might have been the case ten or twenty years ago, but today being gay is no longer a liability.  We have our first openly gay governor , and we have a whole host of LGBT members in Congress .  Mainstream Americans obviously no longer seem to mind, but when you are looking for faults the unprecedented nature of Mayor Pete's run raises eyebrows. The young former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is by far the most articulate of all the candidates, he also appears to be the least ruffled by attacks.  The guy is unflappable, and he's banking on tha

... and the road to New Hampshire A lot was made about the faulty apps at the Iowa caucuses this past week, but by week's end caucus officials were able to count the votes and post results, verifying Mayor Pete's bold prediction that he had won.  Bernie Sanders is of course challenging those results , because Bernie challenges everything.  He and his Bernie Bros believe there is an active conspiracy to deny him the nomination once again. The wily old codger is enjoying his moment in the sun.  At 78, he should be enjoying retirement, but instead honestly believes he has eight good years left inside him to turn our government on its head and impose his brand of " democratic socialism ," which he thinks will make America truly great again. Hillary has been assailing his autocratic vision and the misogyny she believes is rampant in his campaign.  In other words, Bernie is a democratic socialist variation of Trump.  That may be true, but he does have some

Last year I made the effort to read the Books of Moses.  I wanted to see what I was missing in this steadfast devotion to Donald Trump that Evangelical Christians continue to have.  Is he really the second coming of Moses?  Or, is he Aaron, Moses' brother, who forged a molten calf from all the gold offerings of the people demanding he make a god for them to worship? This is a pivotal chapter in the Bible, Exodus 32 , as it shows the anxiety and greed among the Israelites, who thought Moses had abandoned them.  I'm not sure where they got all that gold, other than to plunder the Egyptians before they left, but we shouldn't examine the Bible too closely.  As Maimonides would tell us, the Books of Moses are largely allegorical.  It's the lessons these stories impart that we should be concerned about. We have a very restless Evangelical Christian base these days.  For decades they have been told the second coming of Christ is nigh, and many of them have been prepar

Makes me think of the three old farmers from The Fantastic Mr. Fox.  It is a sorry state of affairs when the Democratic primaries come down to three old white men, according to a recent  Reuters Survey . I thought at this point a younger candidate would emerge, but the only two major candidates under 50 still left in the race are Andrew Yang and Mayor Pete, both polling poorly in national surveys, although Pete is doing well in Iowa.  Of the women, only Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar remain serious contenders, while Tulsi battles it out with Hillary over a slander suit . GOP strategists are licking their chops at the prospect of Trump going up against a candidate older than him.  So much for the age factor.  Trump can claim to be the spring chicken of the bunch at 73, no matter how miserably out of shape he is.  It was Bernie who had the heart attack back in October.  All Trump has to do now is dump Pence and put Nikki Haley on the ticket and his re-election will be seal