Dispatches from Vilnius

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 taking

Kamala took to the airwaves this week to counter all the accusations that she has been ducking the press.  The big one was a special 60 Minutes segment on Monday night where she batted away the more pointed questions and fielded the more genial ones.  She also had interviews with Howard Stern , The View and a podcast Call Her Daddy , which seemed to generate the most controversy largely because the host, Alex Cooper, normally doesn't interview politicians, but made an exception given the historic nature of Kamala's campaign.  Oh, and she had a beer with Stephen Colbert. It's hard to say what the impact of these interviews will be on the campaign.  Trump provided a running commentary for his MAGA folk, filled with the invectives we have come to expect from the anointed one.  He had a chance to do a separate interview for 60 Minutes but bailed at the last minute , saying he wasn't going to allow himself to be fact checked on air.  If there is one thing these MAGA folk

More and more, Trump resembles that man on the street corner holding up his apocalyptic sign.  His "normies," as Jonah Goldberg calls his normal defenders, dismiss the vile rhetoric as "trash talk," saying they wish Trump would "stick with the issues" but that we shouldn't put too much stock in his vitriol.  The question remains is this doomsday talk working for Trump?  Can he really pull that many persons out of their bunkers and basements to vote for him on election day, which is now only 32 days away, with most states already engaged in early voting? At this point, he needs them to offset all the Republicans who have openly expressed their support for Kamala.  It's an ever growing list that now includes Jeff Flake , the former Republican Senator from Arizona, a crucial state.  The Trump campaign dismisses these defectors as RINOs but surely they still have some pull in their states.  Every vote counts, especially in a presumably close election.

It's interesting to see Trump try to play both sides of the war in Ukraine.  The other day he said that Ukraine should lay down its arms as it has no chance of winning against Russia.  Further noting that Russia had obliterated Ukraine with towns and cities gone that could "never be duplicated."  He then meets Zelensky and says "Putin cannot win."  Which is it? For his part, Zelensky is also playing both sides in meeting with Republican and Democratic leaders with the hope that the US will continue to support Ukraine regardless of who wins the election.  He still faced criticism from Lindsey Graham for meeting Gov. Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania.  Graham saw this as a partisan move .  Yet, Zelensky met with Donald in Trump Tower, supposedly to hash out his "victory plan." I find it hard to believe Zelensky shared much information with Trump knowing that he is such a blabber mouth.  No sooner had the Ukrainian president left the building than Trump was

The United States isn't the only country in the heat of an election.  Lithuania is holding parliamentary elections next month with over 20 political parties vying for the majority in the Seimas.   No single party will win an outright majority so that means coalitions will be formed like the current one that saw three parties come together to lead the Seimas.   We've been watching the debates and it is not a pretty sight.  With so many political parties, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) has opted to show five parties on any given night, pitting one of the coalition government parties against three challengers.  Last night it was Aušrinė Armonaitė of the Freedom Party against three pro-Russian parties.    The Christian Families Alliance is so avowedly pro-Russian that you would think its leader, Waldemar Tomaszewski was a direct agent of Moscow.  It was hard to say where the other party stood. Don't let the Polish name fool you.  For years he has been heading a

Donald Trump can't seem to get any break these days.  You can visualize him loosening his tie as he complains about there being no bump in the polls after all the news channels ran with the story of the second assassination attempt all week.  He vented on Truth Social, hoping to boost its plummeting stock value, but it too hit a record low of $13.55 on Friday.  Meanwhile, the Dow hit a new high of 42,000 on news that the Fed is lowering interest rates.  Here again, Donald bemoaned that it was a political move that favored Kamala Harris, even though the Fed had been talking about this for months. Donald isn't the only one having problems.  The man he called  " Martin Luther King on steroids " turns out to be a " Black Nazi " in disguise.  CNN uncovered Mark Robinson's screen avatar on a porn site from some years ago where he went off on a number of vile tangents, including one where he preferred Hitler to Obama.  He also praised slavery and wished it woul

That was not the takeaway Trump loyalists wanted coming out of the debate.  Not only was he brutally fact checked on the spot, but three days later it still remains a viral meme .  It even spurred the premier "childless cat lady" herself to post on instagram that she is endorsing Kamala.  A move that drove over 400,000 visitors to vote.gov that night, encouraging young Swifties to register to vote!  A petulant Trump could only say she will " pay a price in the marketplace ." I wasn't planning to watch the debate but my dog woke me up at 4 in the morning and so I turned on CNN thinking I might catch the last half hour.  Turns out I caught the whole thing as it came on at 9 EDT.  Everyone was carrying the debate, even BBC and Lithuanian News.  An estimated 67 million Americans and countless foreign watchers. To say it was an awful night for Donald is a massive understatement.  The only thing stopping Republican leaders from asking him to step down is that the rep

For a moment I took a break from everything.  I ran the afternoon 10K race of the Vilnius Marathon.  I was standing with a contingent of NATO soldiers from some European country.  I couldn't make out the language.  They were all wearing light blue t-shirts that read "We Run This Together." There have been a lot of threats emanating from Moscow recently.  It felt good to have that spirit of solidarity even if NATO countries tend to go their own separate ways in regard to Russia.   Summer has lingered on.  It was over 30 degrees Celsius running along the cobblestone streets of Vilnius with the heat rising up from the pavement.  The only break was when we ran through Žverynas as the trees along Vytautas Street provided some shade.  The residential street is named after one of the Great Dukes of Lithuania who defended the Grand Duchy against the Teutonic knights at the Battle of Žalgiris in the early 15th century.  My throat was parched at the 3 km. mark.  Thankfully, there w