Dispatches from Vilnius

No wonder the NYTimes is so upset.  For months they had been begging the White House for an exclusive interview and were rebuffed, only for Biden to pitch up on the Howard Stern Show.  That must have been a big jolt as Biden went on for over an hour.  Granted, Stern talked for much of that time, but Biden was in full control of himself, even cracking a few jokes as he covered a wide range of subjects including his low grades in law school.   When he first ran for President in 1988 this had been a big issue , as he was accused of plagiarism and subsequently dropped out of the race.  Now he laughs it off, saying he didn't take law school as seriously as he should have.  Not that it really mattered in the end, as he had a successful career in Congress just the same.  But, Howard didn't dig too deep, much to the chagrin of the NYTimes, who felt Stern should have been ... well more stern. Instead, Howard gave Biden his enthusiastic endorsement, recall...

I never really understood why the Republicans were blocking the military aid packages to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, as support of these countries is very strong among their constituency, especially Israel.  Virtually all my conservative friends on facebook support Ukraine as adamantly as they do Israel.  Yet, here was Johnson holding up the aid package for over 6 months to the point Ukraine was really suffering along the front line with Spring maneuvers in full swing. One can argue why European countries aren't supplying more aid and ammunition to Ukraine?  Unfortunately, we have Mike Johnsons of our own.  It took at least 6 months to get a 50 billion euro aid package through the EU parliament with Viktor Orban blocking it until the EU unfroze funds for Hungary.  There was no military aid in the package, as it was aimed at bailing Ukraine out of its economic crisis as a result of the two-year war.  The funny part is that Orban backed down without the EU h...

The crazy twists and turns continue with Polish President Duda caught visiting Trump in his golden tower on Wednesday in New York.  They apparently sat for a two-and-a-half hour dinner, after which Statesman Don boasted of how much he gave Poland during his four years.  This follows closely on the heels of an endorsement from Lettuce-head Lizz Truss, the former PM of Lesser Britain.   Liz doesn't matter much, but Duda is still head of state even if his political party suffered badly in the parliamentary elections and he now finds himself essentially rendered moot, as most of the power in Poland is vested in the parliament.  The White House is choosing not to react, which is probably the best course.  Otherwise, Biden would just be feeding into Trump's enormous ego. I'm sure the endorsement and visit were arranged by billionaire backers anxious to give Trump the illusion of still being a major player, even if he knows nothing of what is going on in the wor...

In this topsy-turvy world, the women's basketball tournament is drawing a much bigger audience than the men's basketball tournament, largely thanks to the incredible appeal of Caitlin Clark.  Her rematch with Angel Reese in the regional finals drew the largest ESPN television audience for any game, men's or women's.  That was until she squared off against Paige Bueckers in the semi-final game against UConn.  More than 14 million viewers tuned in, peaking at 17 million viewers.  Even the mighty LeBron was watching the game, only to complain about the call on a moving pick that sent Iowa to the Finals against South Carolina today, which no doubt will draw an even bigger audience. Despite all this attention, alpha males continue to voice their grievances.  No longer able to claim that "girls" don't bring in the revenue, they fall back on how they could never compete against NBA players.  Luka Doncic threw a bit of cold water on this argument by saying Caitli...

A nasty encounter in the city had us once again assessing our house, or more specifically our basement, as to what we should do in case of an invasion.  Russians are numerous in Vilnius and not all of them are friendly.  Daina found that out yesterday when she was cut off at a parking meter by a burly Russian man who wanted to pay for his Land Rover.  As he fumbled with the settings to find the Russian language, Daina asked in Russian if he had left his manners in Moscow.  He turned on her with fiery eyes and asked if she had any education.  She quickly saw it pointless to argue with him and took a few steps back and waited as he muttered in Russian while setting the time for his expensive SUV.  The look in his eyes, she told me later, said it all.  He acted like he owned Vilnius. Russians pretty much laid low the first year in the city.  No one knew how the war in Ukraine would turn out.  In September of 2022 it looked like Ukrainian forces ...

It seems so old it is almost hard to place Seinfeld in the contemporary world.  This was a television series that began before the Soviet Union collapsed and in its own cynical way noted some of the diaspora in New York such as a Serbian "tennis pro" who sells Jerry a very expensive racket , only for Jerry to find out the Serbian can't play tennis at all, and almost ends up sleeping with his wife because the Serbian is so desperate not to have Jerry tell anyone that he pimps out his own wife.  We find out about "Latvian Orthodoxism" in another episode where George decides to convert to be closer to a Latvian girl, and Kramer almost gets a nun to give up her vows because of his "kavorka," or lure of the animal .  I hadn't watched these episodes in years, decades even, but thanks to Netflix, which has become the new "Nick at Nite," I could watch Seinfeld in its entirety from 1989-98. Now I can rest easy having finally finished Seinfeld.  I...