Dispatches from Vilnius

Either LP has a very bad sense of geography or her timing is way off.  She was scheduled to perform in Kaunas next week but her concert was abruptly cancelled when she proudly showed off a hoodie  she received from adoring Russian fans on the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.   To be fair the American singer, who is more famous for the songs she has written for Lady Gaga and Beyonce, has shown her support of Ukraine, but the hoodie literally raised a red flag in a country where any symbol of the former Soviet Union and Russian aggression is banned.  I suppose the hoodie falls outside of the ban but has not been well received in the media.    There is a lot of consternation right now as Ukraine is suffering losses along the front line and worry has grown that Russia will mobilize forces along the Baltic borders.  Putin has been more aggressive lately with faux elections coming up.  He's had his "justice department" put numerous B...

There were actually Super Bowl watch parties at some of the local pubs in Vilnius but the game came on well past my bedtime.  I checked in on my cellphone when my dog first woke me up at 5:30 this morning and saw that the Chiefs had pulled off another nail-biter.  I imagine that had the alpha males all in a rage.  No doubt the conspiracy theories are swirling on X. X has become pretty much like Parler and Truth Social, littered with alt-right conspiracies and now TCN on X.  Tucker Carlson gained almost as much attention as Taylor Swift with his interview of Putin last week.  Excerpts have been shown everywhere including Lithuanian news.  Daina told me to hush when the clips appear as she wants to hear what Putin is saying in Russian.  It's usually quite different from what is translated into English and other languages.   Calling Tucker a " useful idiot " is actually a compliment.  Chris Wallace was closer to the mark by calling him an "...

Not surprisingly the Republican House refuses to bring the Bipartisan Senate bill on border security to the floor, given it is the only card they have to play in November.  "Gym" Jordan said as much in this feisty interview .  Trump has become the de-facto House speaker, controlling the ultra-slim majority with bellicose threats from the campaign trail.  Republican US Representatives know their political fate lies in the little hands of the Donald, who controls the electorate in most of their conservative districts, including the figurehead speaker Mike Johnson from Shreveport, Louisiana.  Republicans firmly believe they can still play this issue in the general election even if their stonewalling is on full display. The border security bill was being done to free up aid packages to Ukraine and Israel, which have been on hold for several months now.  This has frustrated lobbying groups, which included a recent delegation of Eastern European parliamentarians plea...

I have no stake in the Super Bowl but I would kind of like to see San Francisco win.  Not because I'm against Swifties, but I like the Brock Purdy story and how Kyle Shanahan has put the 49ers together.  Reminds me a lot of the Seahawks team Pete Carroll built in the early teens.  Yet, I wouldn't bet against Kansas City after pulling off two big road wins to return to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in five years. The Chiefs were good before Taylor Swift became the defining feature of the team.  All year long we saw the effect she not only had on the team but the NFL as a whole.  Everyone was talking about Taylor and her relationship with Travis Kelce.  We've literally watched that relationship reach full bloom with Taylor mouthing " I love you " after the Chiefs won the AFC Championship, and Travis giving her a great big kiss.   For the most part the NFL has loved it, as she has brought a spike in viewership and introduced a legion of her fans...

Nice to see a professor and a university standing up to DeSantis.  The Florida governor has gone out of his way to pitch a "colorblind society," eliminating courses from the AP curriculum that present race and gender identification.  At Florida Gulf Coast University, Ted Thornhill is being quite blunt about it, teaching a course called " White Racism ," in which he lays out the cold, hard facts as to how white Americans have created a system of racism that continues to this day.  He only has to point at his governor to prove it. His central argument is that many Whites believe they live in a post-racial society thanks to Civil Rights legislation and the election of Barack Obama as president.  Yet, there is still so much discrimination in society, much of it institutionalized, making it even more difficult for persons of color to get a fair shake.  Everyday we see examples of this, yet this notion of a "colorblind society" has permeated the cultural narrat...

The Oscar controversies trumped the New Hampshire primary this week.  People were more upset that Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie got snubbed for Oscars than they were Trump winning another primary.  It wasn't like Barbie got shut out.  Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera both received supporting actor nominations, but the snubs were slaps in the face for a movie that pulled in nearly $1.5 billion worldwide. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion Trump would win the Granite State.  He was polling more than 20 percent ahead of his nearest challenger.  Yet, Nikki scored almost 45% of the vote. Of course this didn't stop him from  celebrating his "yuge" victory , urging his former UN ambassador to accept defeat before he trounces her in her home state of South Carolina.  He even had SC Senator Tim Scott behind him chanting USA! USA! USA!  As if he had won a gold medal in the Olympics. Meanwhile,  Biden won  without his name even being on the...

I always thought the Civil War was a pretty easy subject to tackle, especially if you regard yourself as an American citizen.  Apparently, it is more difficult for those who live in the South.  It seems they still haven't gotten over losing the war.  But, Nimarata"Nikki" Haley is different.  Her parents are both immigrant Sikhs from India.  You would think she would have no Southern identification, yet she grew up in South Carolina and seems to have absorbed the "Lost Cause" hook, line and sinker.  She got a big F at a rally when asked, What was the cause of the Civil War?   I grew up in the South too but I learned pretty quickly that the root cause of the war was slavery.  You'd hear these constant arguments about states' rights but the right they were talking about was to continue to have slaves while the rest of the country moved toward a free market economy.  The industrial revolution was in full bloom when the Civil War broke out in 1861...

I never realized how bulky plasma televisions were until I tried to move one. They're even heavier than the old tube televisions.  I had to get my son to help me move it out of his grandfather's house so that the handyman could finish painting the living room.  No wonder plasma TVs didn't make the cut.  They were discontinued in 2014.  Hard to believe it was more than ten years ago when Daina and I bought this television for her father and mother. At the time, these massive sets were considered the best of the best with a much higher picture quality than LED televisions.  However, things change.  LED sets have improved tremendously and Plasmas have been relegated to appliance recycle centers.  Although I'm tempted to hang onto this one and put it in our basement.  It still works just fine.   It's funny how technology has this period of experimentation with different prototypes before one dominates the market and pushes all the other prot...

Oddly, it is much nicer when the temperature is -10 C or even less.  The snow is powdery and light and easy to shovel.  The air crisp and clean.  There usually isn't much wind.  It is actually quite pleasant outside as long as I have decent gloves to protect my hands.  They get cold quickly due to poor circulation.  The best gloves are a pair of old fur-lined mittens that don't leave my fingertips numb after working outside. Still I see a lot of men wear no gloves at all.  I don't know if they have skin like a walrus or if this is some badge of honor.  That was the case when Daina and I went to check out the new windows for the Signatories House.  Out of respect, I took my gloves off to shake their hands but just as quickly put them back on. Bit by bit the state museum is restoring the Signatories House, which was used back in 1918 to sign the first act of independence from the Russian Empire.  That anniversary is coming up in March....

I hate it when I can't shake something out of my head at night before falling to sleep.  Usually, it is an insipid Christmas song or movie this time of year, but last night it was the news that Russell Wilson had been benched for the remainder of the season so that Denver didn't risk triggering a clause that would guarantee Russ an additional $37 million if he was injured in the two remaining games.  Why do I even care? I quietly shouted at myself as I didn't want to wake Daina up. This forced marriage between Sean Payton and Russell Wilson wasn't going to work out.  It was just a pleasant surprise when Denver won five games in a row and was on the cusp of staging one of the most remarkable comebacks in NFL history.  All that came to a crashing halt Sunday night when the Broncos lost to the Patriots, leaving pundits to ponder what next?  It didn't matter that Russ almost pulled off a Christmas miracle.  His days at Denver were done.  Bring in Jarrett S...

As the year winds down I find the blog getting more hits than usual.  At least this time people are looking at posts.  Mostly old posts, like Colonel , when we actually had discussions and this was a pretty lively place.  The contributors went their separate ways.  Only Trippler is still around.  I suppose the posts get shared and others look at them but no comments.  It's like a curious form of voyeurism. Blogging isn't very cool anymore.  I've shared some of my posts on facebook and gotten some response but no additional followers.  I had written a few articles on LinkedIn, mostly to do with architecture like a high school my wife and I designed in Vilnius.  But response wasn't overwhelming so I stopped writing. An old high school buddy promotes himself on facebook and has managed to garner 3.4K followers.  His is a garden variety philosophy mixed with religious observations in the form of memes that you can pick up anywhere, but it s...

I had an interesting taxi ride home.  The driver was Lithuanian, which is pretty rare these days.  He was complaining about the Central Asians taking over Bolt, which is the service I use.  They don't speak English.  They don't speak Russian.  It is impossible to communicate with them, he said.  God knows how so many got in but Bolt doesn't seem to care what language its drivers speak as long as they can meet the heavy demand for rides this time of year. The driver became even more animated when I told him I was an American married to a Lithuanian wife.  How do you guys meet all these Lithuanian women?  There are only 3 million of us and more than 300 million of you.  I would think it virtually impossible.  Just lucky, I said.  He laughed as we putted along in heavy traffic.   He spoke between Lithuanian and English.  I could pick up most of what he said as long as he didn't speak too fast.  His biggest frustrati...