Dispatches from Vilnius

I found myself looking at remote islands like Pitcairn and St. Helena .  Pitcairn Island is probably the most famous of the two as this is where Fletcher Christian led his mutiny against the Bounty and tried to settle his merry band of mutineers far from the long arm of the British Empire.  His legacy has lived on.  I couldn't help feel a touch of envy, but as much as one tries to distance oneself from events in this crazy mixed up world of ours, the bad news still has a way of seeping in.  Elon Musk has managed to reach Pitcairn, setting the 35 permanent inhabitants up with Starlink free of charge in his effort to leave no stone unturned on this planet. Elon has brought his DOGE and pony show to Washington, determined to make government accountable by slashing unnecessary spending.  Good luck with that after Republicans pushed through a whopping $895 billion defense bill  in their last month in session. The only thing they managed to cut was funding for...

It seems like the Heritage Foundation is taking its pointers from the Kremlin as they look to consolidate power in the executive branch.  Our Constitution is a little older than that of Russia, but no reason that the ultra-conservative advisors in Trump's administration can't find a way to undercut it.  One means is impoundment, whereby the White House exercises what amounts to a line-item veto on Congressional appropriations by impounding allocated funds.  The last president who tried to use this authority ran into a brick wall , but with a compliant Republican Congress and Supreme Court who knows this time around? I still can't wrap my head around how Trump won the election after three successive electoral defeats from 2018 to 2022.  He lost the House in 2018, then the Senate and the White House in 2020, and his party was barely able to retake the House in 2022 after what many thought would be a "red wave" that would see the Republicans regaining control of both...

We were warned back in 2016.  Has it finally come to pass.   A Princeton computer science professor showed how easy it was to hack a voting machine and urged Congress to secure voting.  Less than two months later, Trump had won a surprise victory and there were deep concerns of Russian hacking.  This led then Attorney General Jeff Sessions to launch an investigation, much to President Trump's chagrin.  In Sessions' mind he was trying to assuage all the anxiety that surrounded an election in which Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million.  The rest as they say is history.  Or is it? What's interesting to me is that Trump had virtually no coattails, similar to 2016.  Republicans would have won these contested races with or without him, as Democratic senators were doomed in West Virginia and Montana and had only an outside chance in Ohio.  If there was any senator who benefited from Trump's "surprise" victory it is Dave McCormick.  He...

Like many, I didn't see that coming.  I'm sure someone will make a sculpture of this image in the months to come.   The CNN election news crew seemed disappointed when Kamala ran out of opportunities to make up the difference in Pennsylvania.  John King kept showing all the large blue dots that indicated areas that still hadn't been fully counted, but one by one the dots shriveled up and she hardly made a dent in Trump's lead.  All that was left was for Van Jones to deliver his eulogy in the early morning hours, just like he did in 2016. I guess greed and anger trump hope and joy. That's the message that has been heard around the world.  One Guardian columnist offered a snarky if accurate take on Trump 2.0 .  Yep, those who think they will gain favor in his administration are forgetting what happened to the last one. Objectively, we know what will occur given Trump's "dysfunctional relationship with power." Many thought we had learned our lesson from t...

If this Iowa poll holds true, the MAGA cult is in for a long night.  It could signal a tectonic shift in the electorate that sees many states falling Kamala's way on election evening, not just the battleground states.  It's easy to see why this could happen, as Trump has taken to climbing into garbage trucks and simulating blow jobs on microphones in the waning days of the campaign.  Oh, and threatening firing squads for political opponents.  There are no guardrails left, especially when he shows up in a safety vest to political rallies. This SNL segment sums up the campaign in a nutshell, replete with a cameo by Kamala Harris staring back at her doppelganger in the mirror.  This is her moment and Donald Dump literally paved the way for her by becoming so detached from reality that he now seems to be living inside a hall of mirrors . It's not just Iowa.  Many states are turning Kamala's way in the closing week. They were probably there from the moment she...

  It is starting to look a bit like 1973 as Donald tries to dodge the swirling allegations that he is a fascist and that his supporters aren't "garbage."  This from a man who called the United States a " garbage can for the world ."  Meanwhile, early voting is in full swing with North Carolina already reaching 50% of its registered voters and Georgia close behind.  We could easily see the same numbers in these states as we saw in 2020.  A big turn out doesn't favor Herr Trump. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris offered a more than reasonable alternative to this sad state of dementia that 46% of Americans currently find themselves in.  I read a story where a young woman voted to protect abortion rights in Arizona while at the same time voted for Trump.  Apparently, she doesn't like how Kamala is trying to use abortion to win over women like her.  So, she stood her ground. It's nice to see that Muslim Americans in Arizona are coming to their senses .  ...

Who would have thought Donald's triumphant return to New York would turn into bedlam?  Just about everyone, but even by Trump standards this was a new low bar.  One that has drawn numerous comparisons to a German-American Bund Nazi Rally at the old Madison Square Garden in 1939.  It started with a few purported "jokes" about Puerto Ricans and quickly descended into a hate rally that had outsider Republicans scratching their heads , especially those locked in close races where the Hispanic vote matters.   Trump has shown he has more lives than Fritz the Cat, so pundits and prognosticators aren't going so far as to say it is over.  But, it is pretty damning when members of your own party are scrambling to do damage control.  Marco Rubio accused the media of "smearing Trump supporters as Nazis!" in an all caps cry on X. There were plenty in attendance, Marco, as the crowd hooted and cheered as self-professed comedian Tony Hinchcliffe set the tone for th...

It may not seem like much to outsider observers but that Hail Mary with no time left on the clock gave Kamala Harris and the Democrats as much a victory as it did the Washington Commanders.  It's called the Redskins Rule , dating back long before Washington changed its moniker.  Whenever the former Redskins won its last home game before a presidential election, the political party in power has won the election.  This dates back to 1940!   With polls all over the place, it is as good a predictor as any and I imagine the Harris camp was cheering on the Commanders, nee Redskins.  It was a nailbiter as Chicago scored a touchdown with just 25 seconds left on the clock to take a 15-12 lead. They had a 96.4% chance of winning the game.  Yet, Jayden Daniels had one last throw and made it count, much to the chagrin of Chicago Bear cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, who was already taunting the crowd .  You can imagine the Trump camp doing the same only to watc...

Perhaps one of the strangest twists in this election is Trump complaining about members of the British Labour Party campaigning for Kamala Harris.  Sofia Patel (pictured beside Biden) supposedly urged 100 Labour Party staff (current and former) to hit the campaign trail for Kamala.  Not only are they allowed to do so as volunteers, but members of the British Conservative and Reform parties have been campaigning for Trump, most notably Liz Truss and Nigel Farage.  This seems to be part of his latest effort to hamper a Harris electoral victory, which appears more and more likely, with extraneous complaints and lawsuits.  Why else would Team Trump go to such lengths to claim foreign meddling , other than disguise such "meddling" in his campaign? Farage is understandable.  He's a right-wing kook who has been a big Trump supporter since the early days of Brexit.  Liz is a little harder to figure out, but I guess her fall from grace in 2022 left her feeling a lit...

As they stand in a barn full of cow manure at the Butler Farm Show grounds, look how Elon Musk towers over Trump.  Mind you Donald claims to be 6'-3" (191 cm).  Yet, Musk is listed at 6'-2" (188 cm.).  Musk does appear to be wearing heeled boots, but then Trump is also known to wear lifts to boost his height.  The rally was pretty much a bust with Musk becoming an overnight viral sensation with his flying leap.   Yet, Team Trump hailed it as a victory in returning to the scene of the crime, where Trump allegedly had his ear clipped by a bullet.  No sign of any damage to his ear lobe upon his return.  These tell tale signs matter, as it shows the depth of Trump's pathological lying.  Yes, he did get shot at, but it was the fireman who took the bullet behind him, not Trump.  He paid a tribute of sorts to Corey Comperatore, but in retelling the incident he focused on himself, noting that he is "bulletproof."  It was this incident that...

As we inch toward E-Day we are being led to believe that support for Kamala Harris is eroding and that President Trump once again is seen as inevitable.  I really don't get these projections especially given how off the rails Trump has been ever since Kamala replaced Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.  In recent weeks, he has appeared disoriented and lost. Take for example a "town hall" hosted by the infamous dog-killer Kristi Noem where Trump broke into dance about half way through and quit fielding questions.  No problemo with his audience, which joined him in celebrating his favorite songs.  Is this really the kind of guy Americans want to see in office for the next four years? According to Nate Silver, yes.  He has revised his projection yet again, giving the Trumpster a 50.2% chance of winning the electoral college.  I wouldn't put too much stock in Nate's projections, as he reversed course while still at 538 in 2022 to give the Republicans a 60% of...