Where do we go from here?

The Fat Fuhrer and Melanoma just before shots rang out

So much for Trump's glorious debut at the White House Press dinner. Karoline Leavitt did say "shots will be fired" and indeed they were, although not the shots anyone imagined. Too bad, Trump was going to do his own stand-up routine in lieu of a comedian. Better luck next year.

Trump is feeling most of the heat from within his own MAGA base these days. There are a lot of unhappy campers that thought His Trumpness would bring down prices across the board. Instead, things have gotten worse under his reign leaving many with "liar's remorse" as the crew of "The View" described Tucker Carlson's mea culpa. Who knew Tucker had a younger brother named Buckley. I assume named after the great William F. Buckley, like his son.

While Tucker may believe he is speaking for the disenfranchised, many within the MAGA base are giving their elected Congresspersons an earful. Just ask Susan Collins at a ribbon cutting in Maine. I have no sympathy for these losers as they got what they deserved. Unfortunately, they have dragged the whole country down with them by voting for this diaper-clad pedophile, who has literally turned everything into shit.

Whenever someone asks me where I'm from these days, I say Lithuania. An honest answer since I'm fast approaching 30 years living abroad. I haven't felt this embarrassed to say America since George Bush was President. However, most Lithuanians looked positively on Bush as he helped speed the process of getting their country into NATO, even if they had to agree to CIA black sites as part of the deal. Here's Trump now ready to jettison the trans-Atlantic organization because European countries won't support him in Iran. Fortunately, it is not up to him to make such a decision. Thanks to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, he needs Congressional approval, which is no longer a sure thing for his eminence.  Nevertheless, Trump can remove US troops from NATO countries, which has Lithuania worried as there are more than a 1000 American troops stationed here.

It no longer really matters as European countries are ratcheting up their defense spending, restoring conscription and building military bases to deal with the Russian menace. The bigger problem though is the enemy within. Lithuanian intelligence estimates that as many as 1 in 5 Lithuanians are pro-Russian. To what extent is anyone's guess but the populist parties did very well in the 2024 election, mostly because of perceived economic worries and corruption allegations.

I say perceived because when you look on the face of it, the Lithuanian economy is growing rapidly. So much so that even British conservative parliamentarians are lamenting that Great Britain could soon fall behind Lithuania in GDP per capita. The EU has been a great boon for Lithuania, not just in terms of helping to finance its massive infrastructure improvements but as an outlet for its many exports. Lithuania is no longer reliant on a Russian market for its products. Yet, the average Lithuanian still seems to think most of our products go to Putinland. 

It is tough, however, when it comes to utilities bills. They skyrocketed at the beginning of the year for no apparent reason. By March we cut off the heat and bundled up against the chilly early Spring nights rather than face another month of outrageous heating bills. We were hoping for warmer weather when we came back from Japan, but it is supposed to reach Zero Celsius tonight. More thermals. It isn't so much the totally unnecessary war in Iran as it is the pernicious greed of utilities companies. These guys are whom Lithuanians should be angry with. For years they told us how being independent from Russian oil and natural gas was going to bring prices down, instead they have gone up year after year after year. This despite a massive investment in solar and wind energy thanks to EU grants. 

Now the government has signed a letter of intent with GE Vernova Hitachi for a small modular nuclear reactor, or SMR, to help boost our lagging power needs. One of the tech moguls wanted to build a huge plant for semiconductor chips but there wasn't enough electricity to supply it and so the multi-billion euro project, partially sponsored by Taiwan, has been put on hold. We better watch out Trump doesn't think we are enriching uranium.

I won't bore you with anymore details. It's just to show that wherever you are in the world you are dealing with inflation of one kind or another. There is no American exceptionalism in this regard. During the worst year of inflation, 2022, it was over 20% in Lithuania but then salaries and commissions were keeping up with it for the most part, so we took it as part of the rapid economic growth we were experiencing. Now that the economy is slowing down around the globe, inflation is harder to take.

Don't tell that to the MAGA cult. They seem to believe only they are suffering and that it would have been immeasurably worse if Kamala had been elected. Trump and his minions remind them of that everyday. Whatever the problems are they are because of "Brandon," not Donnie Dumbo, who utterly fails to understand percentages. No matter, he has Bobby Jr. and the Great Oz to defend him at a Senate hearing on the current state of health in America.

I wish I was back in Japan having a Samurai burger at a cool little hamburger restaurant we ate at in Kyoto rather than have to listen to this crap. The guy made the best wagyu beef burgers, albeit on a brioche bun, I've ever had. The meat literally came pouring out of the buns. He had three katanas hanging on the wall which were as good as three Michelin stars as far as I was concerned.

Now I have to wrap my mind around all the nonsense taking place in the world, mostly because of a demented old fart, who literally collapsed when his secret service tried to whisk him away from the table. Maybe his legs had fallen asleep or the guy is just so infirmed now that it takes half a dozen bodyguards to lift him up and rush him out of a press dinner in his honor. He managed to pull himself together afterward to state that this is why he needs a $400 million golden ballroom so that he can have better security. I suppose Dr. Oz gave him a shot in the ass.

As Agnetha once crooned, Where Do We Go from Here? The midterm elections couldn't come fast enough. We need someone to rein in Donny Dumpster Fire. The Republicans won't do it, no matter how ridiculous it gets. The Senate Republicans want to give their president more money for his war on immigrants. House Republicans say the "skinny bill" doesn't go far enough. Please make it stop!