Dispatches from Vilnius

Like so much in this latest installment of Ridley Scott's prequel to Alien , the quote appears to come from The   Bible , but is apparently a coarse translation found in The Living Bible, as the King James translation of Proverbs 16:27 simply says "an ungodly man diggeth up evil," which seems closer to the mark in the case of David.   I should have left well enough alone but watched Alien: Covenant this weekend.  We are led to believe that he and Elizabeth ran into some difficulty on this mysterious planet.  All we see of her is a headstone planted in what David calls the garden, after meeting his doppelganger Walter, who had arrived with the crew of the Covenant to this foreboding planet.  This film is largely a showcase for Michael Fassbender, who plays both roles.  Humans become incidental or rather incubators for the alien life forms David has been playing with on the planet. He claims Elizabeth was hit by the virus, one he apparently unleashed o...

It seems there a lot of conservative folks out there who are impressed with what the Taliban has accomplished in such short order and would like to repeat it in the United States, among them the Navy Seal who claims to have been the one who took Osama bin Laden out.  He's changed his tune a little since then, now claiming he would only need nine guys to save Americans still trapped in Kabul.  However, the Right-Wingers once consigned to the fringe are raving on the internet how effective the Taliban was in its assault, including "Li'l Fucker" Carlson.  These Magaheads believe that the Fall of Kabul represents the end of Liberalism, and the validation of their autocratic conservative principles.   I suppose we need a recap of events to let these Magaheads know the war was generated not under the guise of Liberal principles, but the need to create conflict to validate a gargantuan military industrial complex that helps propel our economy.  Dick and Rummy d...

Out of curiosity, I watched Prometheus again the other night, at least the second half, as I caught it in progress on television.  I wondered if I had missed something the first time around, but no, it was just as painfully boring to watch with an odd sort of God fixation that seemed to owe more to Erich von Daniken than any deep existential thoughts on what it means to be where we are in space and time.  I'm glad someone else thought the same thing , but for the most part Ridley Scott's prequel to Alien got rave reviews like this one . Part of the problem is the screenwriting. Damon Lindelof is probably best known for driving Lost into the gutter with its shift from playful science fiction themes to a search for some ancient godhead , although I would argue that even with the reduction of episodes per season it had lost all its steam and crawled to a sad ending, making me wonder why I had invested so much time in this nonsense. Damon had a chance to redeem himself with Pro...

Tony Blair has found a way to insinuate himself into the international debate over Afghanistan, claiming that the US and allied countries should have made a long term commitment, as if 20 years wasn't enough.  Blair, as you may know, had initially tried to push Bill Clinton into a war with Iraq, but when that didn't happen, teamed up with George Bush to launch wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Kind of like "Global Britain" before Boris Johnson's PR team penned the term.  In Tony's addled mind , the important thing is to "hold firm" when times get tough, explaining why such "nation building" is necessary. Tony was always a globalist.  He and Bill very actively promoted the idea of  a one world economy, ostensibly to overcome the impact of the Cold War.  The only problem was what to do with countries that don't want to play along.  No one liked what Saddam and the Taliban were doing, but was it worth going to war over?  Both regimes were re...

Phil Valentine is the third outspoken anti-vaxxer and anti-masker to die in recent weeks.  Gov. Abbott of Texas went through a Regeneron treatment , which he is now actively promoting, with the first whiff of COVID, indicating he was scared shitless.  He was vaccinated so in all likelihood would have pulled through just fine without the $6000 treatement.  It makes you wonder why conservative pundits and politicians continue to defy basic safety precautions. Yet they do, even to the point of legislating anti-vax and anti-mask laws that have come under fire at the local level.  In both Texas and Florida, where Gov. Tweedledee and Tweedledum have threatened to withhold pay of teachers, local school districts have issued mask mandates anyway.  Recently, the Texas Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that enforced the anti-mask mandate, but only temporarily.  You would think the safety of students would be of prime concern if not the teachers, but A...

Joe Biden appears to have dodged a bullet.  For whatever reason of their own, the Taliban has restrained itself in Kabul, content to see the infidels leave without putting up much resistance.  There are reports of gunfire near the airport and some Afghans being detained, but so far the evacuation has gone relatively smoothly after a moment there when many thought the Taliban might want to nab a few hostages and make life miserable for Biden.  This is certainly what some conservative pundits hoped . Nope, the Taliban is playing nice, or at least their version of nice, hoping that they get some international recognition out of this.  When they were last in power, 1996-2001, only four countries recognized the Taliban government and the US wasn't among them. Joe played it smart, he took the blame for the ugly evacuation while at the same time noting we wouldn't be in this mess had not the previous administration negotiated a deal exclusively with the Taliban that greatly...

Maybe if Yesterday was more of a comedy and less a moral dramedy it might have been more fun to watch.  One of the better scenes in the movie was when Ed Sheeran, playing himself, questions the title Hey Jude .  Who's Jude?  He asks.  Maybe Hey Dude?   It is pretty hard to imagine one person, especially of rather dubious talent like Jack, remembering all the lyrics to so many Beatles songs word for word.  I don't think Sir Paul McCartney could recall his entire catalog and he wrote most of the songs, although he gave the film his  quiet endorsement .  Beyond the first stanza, that's all I remember of Yesterday , and I have a pretty good memory.  I can recite almost the entire lyrics to American Pie , although not exactly in order.  So, it probably would have made more sense if Jack did a little more ad libbing.  After all who would know the difference except the two sad souls Jack eventually meets who also remember the Beatles...

A post-Olympic meltdown is taking place in China and Russia, as they lament not winning more gold medals in Tokyo.  Chinese media has even gone so far as to include Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan medals in their count so that they end up with 42 gold medals, as opposed to the United States' 39 medals.  I'm surprised Russia didn't try to include all the former Soviet nations in their medal count, instead they claim the Olympics were rigged against them by the US and its allies, costing them gold medals in gymnastics and other events. I suppose there is no way to get around these medal counts.  Russia didn't even compete as a country, but rather as the Russian Olympic Committee or ROC, due to the massive doping scandal they staged at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.  They are lucky their athletes got to compete at all, but as long as they passed their drug tests before the Games they were allowed to take part.   However, Russia and China view the Olympics as a b...

The Fall of Kabul is shaping up a lot like the Fall of Saigon, with US and NATO forces scrambling to evacuate their personnel from the capital city.  I suppose American forces didn't expect the Taliban to retake the country so quickly, but Afghan forces are putting up little resistance to the onslaught that sees Afghan cities taken on almost a daily basis.  This past week, three cities fell into Taliban control including Kandahar, with an assault on Kabul expected within the next 30 days. I suppose this was inevitable as the US never had any real commitment to Afghanistan.  All those talks of a detente or loya jirga with the Taliban, never materialized into a lasting peace.  The Taliban simply bided their time, getting support from Pakistan and Russia, among other countries.  Just last year, it was reported that Russia was offering bounties on US soldiers' heads and now the Kremlin seeks to create ties with the Taliban in the wake of the massive pullout. ...

At first I thought it was some kind of sick joke , but the crowd that assembled outside the Lithuanian parliament building grew from a few hundred to an estimated 5000 persons, appearing to re-enact the insurrection of the US Capitol that took place this past January, replete with makeshift gallows.  There were plenty of flags, many from the former Grand Duchy, as if they were presenting themselves as "patriots." They claimed to be protesting the vaccine mandates the parliament is proposing in key sectors of society.  Some of the protesters even wore Stars of David, further aping what they had seen on television. This mock insurrection grew ever more boisterous during the course of the evening.  Riot police were called in to form a ring around the parliament building so that its members could safely be ferried out by black vans through the raucous crowd.  Local television cameras picked out at least three parliament members among the crowd, making little effort to co...

With new cases of coronavirus spiking in Texas and Florida , you would think the conservative governors might backtrack a little, as have conservative governors of other states.  But, no,  Abbott and DeSantis double down, refusing to give an inch in their ongoing war against COVID restrictions.  At one point, both were being hailed by the conservative right for holding their ground because the two states were doing relatively well, but as summer came and people got out and started mingling about in restaurants, bars and other public venues with no restrictions in place, new cases began to spike.  Slowly at first, but then along came the Delta variant, and soon new cases were being reported right and left.  Now they find themselves pretty much alone in bucking the tide, as fellow conservative governors in other hard-hit states have buckled down on the pandemic, encouraging persons to take the vaccines and allowing schools and public institutions to issue mask man...