Dispatches from Vilnius

or The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight Leave it to W to sum it up perfectly.  He was referring to Trump's inauguration speech but it just as easily describes Trump's time in office.  Not a day goes by without some weird shit happening. While we are still digging ourselves out from Devin Nunes " deep throat " contact on the White House grounds, Ryan Zinke tells us clean energy is a hoax and that he is all for his commander-in-chief lifting the temporary bans on coal mining leases on federal lands.  Dig, baby, dig! The Secretary of Interior doesn't say that wind energy requires a certain amount of fossil fuels to get the turbines moving, he cites the loss of migratory birds as an inhibiting factor.  This has been an argument tossed out by birders, anti-wind groups and conservative pundits for years now.  The energy department devoted a paper to this during the Obama years, noting that efforts were being made to better locate turbines so that the...

His Trumpness has tried to imply there is a silent coup going on, pinning much of the blame on the former Obama administration.  Spicey in a March 21 press conference sent everyone googling the term "Ramspecking," claiming the Obama administration had planted moles in bureaucratic positions who are now thwarting Trump's agenda by leaking information to the public.  The Ramspeck Act, which he was referring to, expired in 1997 and has not been renewed, so it would be illegal for Obama or any president to do this.  But, of course that doesn't stop this administration from slinging wild accusations. However, the idea of a "deep state" has been around for a long time, although such conspiracy theories usually refer to the national security departments teaming together or working independently to push their own agenda counter to that of the President.  This season's Homeland is exploring just such a "deep state" during the transition of...

It's a rare day when a conservative radio talk show retracts a statement much less what he regarded as a "major story," but Alex Jones did just that.  He has apologized for spreading the inflammatory "pizzagate" conspiracy theory that had actually drawn former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn into its web .  We are still waiting on Jones to drop his long standing view that Sandy Hook was a " false flag ." These faux news outlets are coming under increased scrutiny now that we have a President who draws heavily from them.  Trump's wiretapping claim was pulled from Breitbart, and Spicey spread a story aired by Judge Nap that Obama outsourced surveillance on Trump Tower to the UK Government Communications Headquarters.  Fox News later took action against Judge Nap for spreading a false story. The basis for much of this fake news emanates from Russian and Eastern European sources.  Some of it is child's play like these Macedonian k...

It's been a another rough month for the Donald.  This Presidential thing isn't working out quite like the flamboyant one thought it would.  Granted, he wasn't too keen about the health care bill GOP Congressional leaders were offering, but he threw his support behind it, even tried to strong arm wavering House Republicans into accepting it or face the consequences at the polls.  Anti-climactically, the bill couldn't even get through committee, leading Trump to tell Ryan to pull it from a floor vote so that was spared the ultimate indignity for "Trumpcare." This is what happens when you have no game plan but rather try to do things on the fly.  Of course, Trump can blame Paul Ryan, which I'm sure he will do, as he is the one who came up with this noxious health care plan that no one wanted.   Only 17 per cent of Americans showed support for it, and it is highly doubtful any of these persons knew what was in it.   Republicans had been met ...

Last year Tony Toccone and Lisa Petersen adapted Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel, It Can't Happen Here , into a play at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.  They avoided updating the setting to reflect the ongoing election, preferring to stay in the Depression era when fascism was a palpable threat.  Lewis had teamed up with John C. Moffitt to first stage the book in 1936. Since the rise of Trump, many periodicals have called attention to the novel.  However, critics then saw Lewis' principal inspiration as being Huey Long, who was toying with the idea of a run for President before being assassinated  the same year.  Lewis certainly gave "Buzz" Windrip a down-home feeling, but he was projecting the rise of autocratism in Europe on America. Oddly enough it was Roosevelt who took on an authoritarian air after his victory in 1936, as he tried to stack the Supreme Court  in 1937 to obtain favorable rulings on his New Deal legislation.   Congress blocked ...

There seems to be an odd alignment taking place in politics.  Listen to Dennis Kucinich defend Trump's allegations that he was wiretapped.  Kucinich also came out very favorably on Trump's first major speech to Congress.  He has become a Leftie apologist for Trump on Fox News, defending numerous positions the President has taken, including Syria. Kucinich views Trump as a " transitional figure ," although it is pretty hard to discern what that means.  It seems our erstwhile legislator thinks Trump will force a reassessment in traditional party alignments.  He is oddly optimistic that the new President will take a softer approach to climate change and foreign policy than his rhetoric suggested during the campaign.  However, Trump's first two months in office has pretty much made it clear that this will be a pro-fossil fuels administration and that its foreign policy will not be a radical departure from that we have seen the last 60 years. ...

A Day Without a Woman sounds like the title of a campy science fiction movie from the 60s, but it was an attempt to show the world how important women are in the work force.  Unfortunately, it didn't gain the kind of groundswell the March on Washington  and its sister marches did, and left some women wondering if this was more about privilege, as many women couldn't afford to take the risk of striking against their employers. Nevertheless, the general strike created plenty of photo opportunities , keeping the issues of equal pay and health care in the public light.  On the same day, the little tiny country of Iceland, with the highest representation of women in parliament, went one step further by passing legislation that forces businesses to prove they are paying genders equally.  Little chance of that here in the US.  Most states have equal pay laws but they go largely unenforced. Politicians pay lip service to the idea of equal pay.  Even H...

Just when it seemed that the Trump administration had found its footing, one of its key figures turns out to be neck deep in what is quickly becoming Russiagate .  The wily little former senator from Alabama wasn't forthcoming during his confirmation hearings for Attorney General and now finds himself on the hot seat.  Not only that but Donnie Jr. and his son-in-law Jared are similarly being implicated in the confidence game the Trump campaign played with Russia to undermine Obama's sanctions back in December. All this came after the news media essentially gave His Trumpness a free pass on his Address to the Nation, heaping all sorts of praise on him for having found his presidential bearing after one month.  Van Jones, one of his fiercest critics, even opined that Trump could very well be a two-term president if he keeps giving speeches like that. It wasn't like Trump offered any broad bipartisan plan.  What the media reported favorably on was his tone,...

Looking at the other side of the aisle, the Democrats have a new party leader in Tom Perez .  I don't know much about him, or whether he will unite the fractured party, but first signs seem to be positive.  He immediately made Keith Ellison, his rival for the position, deputy chairman in an effort to unite the raucous crowd. I also like that Perez said the party will focus more on down ticket races, rather than investing all this energy in the presidential race.  It really was amazing to me that the Dems were unable to retake the Senate given more Republican seats were up for grabs than at any time in the past 6 years.  They were only able to gain one seat.  Much too much money and energy was spent on Hillary at the expense of key Congressional races. Personally, I was rooting for Keith Ellison.  His Muslim background had many Democrats questioning whether he was a wise choice.  Ultimately, it is a DNC leader's organizational skills that shoul...

I was tempted to listen to the evil Dr. Bannon at the CPAC pep rally but pretty much knew what to expect.  CNN was literally dripping with anticipation last night as Bannon very rarely makes himself available to the public.  He's one of those that likes to lurk behind the scenes, whispering his demented thoughts into the ears of political leaders, kind of like CPAC itself. Stephen Bannon is only slightly more acceptable than Sean Hannity and Alex Jones, who apparently also has the President's ear.  Bannon at least doesn't shout.  Unfortunately, the agenda is pretty clear.  Turn the notion of mainstream media on its ear, allowing for fringe media like that they represent to become part of the mainstream media.  At that point, listeners will be completely confused as to what is real and what is fake, as it will be competing with each other every night for their attention.  News will no longer have an ethical standard but will be judged by how man...

or The Madness of King Trump To this point, Mike Pence, or Mike "Pants" as my wife calls him, has been "good cop" to Trump's "bad cop" in the latest version of a Marvel crime fighting duo.  However, it is starting to appear that Vice President Pence is cultivating larger aspirations.  His European tour was a big hit, making a strong impression on European leaders and Bono alike for his level-headedness and commitment to international norms. Meanwhile, the evil Dr. Bannon appears to be tending the stables of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse , waiting for that propitious moment to usher in Armageddon.   Things didn't work out very well with one horsemen, Milo Yiannopoulos, who has been dumped after his comments on pedophilia. The conservatives' "boy toy" tried to start a riot at Cal-Berkeley only to see his own reputation go up in flames. It is really hard to understand what is going on in this White House.  There seem ...

It seems 45 has unwittingly inspired a book club  -- not the kind he would probably give a thumb's up too as many of the titles are apocalyptic in theme.  One of the books that has emerged at the top of the list is Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here .  It used to be fun back in the old days to speculate what the country would be like under a "bumbling, repressive and democratically elected American President," safe in the belief we would never be so easily deceived.  But, sadly it has happened. The book followed pretty closely on the heels of the elevation of Hitler to Chancellor of Germany in 1933.  Other tyrants had come to power in Italy and Spain but there wasn't much of a democratic process in these countries, as they came to power through civil war.  Germany accepted Hitler, although at the time of Lewis' writing it was hard to tell how bad things would turn out. That's kind of where we are now.  Trump is more laughing stock th...

It was a pretty simple thing to do.  Just go in front of the press and announce his new pick for Secretary of Labor, say a few complimentary things about him, and quietly bid adieu.  But, His Trumpness wasn't going to let it go at that. The first indication this was going to get messy was all of his handlers preceding him, but no sign of "Alex" Acosta.  They all dutifully sat in the front row to give their president emotional support.  I had thought Trump would stick to theme, as he initially spoke so calmly.  I tuned away only to come back twenty minutes later to hear him ranting about the classified information that had been illegally leaked out of his administration.  Not just the leaked phone calls of Mike Flynn, but that of his conversations with the Presidents of Mexico and Australia, all of which he claimed were misrepresented in the press, or to use his phrase, "real leaks, fake news." It was clear to everyone his conversation with Pr...

Call me prescient, as I had started a novella in December about an old man bumming a light from a young American at a cafe in Ljubljana and then spilling out a story about Melania being a deep cover Russian spy, who by a surprising stroke of luck ended up becoming First Lady.  I thought it was too far fetched to go any further and dropped it after a couple of chapters, but maybe I should take it up again, as this strange request by Vladimir Putin has me thinking he has a mole in the White House, not that Melania spends very much time there. I've never been to Ljubljana but they tell me it is nice.  Slovenia managed to escape the Yugoslavian blood bath relatively unscarred.  It was the first of the former Yugolav republics to join the EU in 2004, and has enjoyed a steadily growing economy ever since.   Melania left her homeland before the break up, becoming a model in Italy and eventually migrating to the US on an H-1B visa, where she hit her stride i...