Lithuania

Russia’s neighbor backs push to lift ban on nuclear weapons, prompting outcry from Moscow

That neighbor is Lithuania. I don't know anything about Lithuania and CNBC doesn't expect the average American to know ANYTHING about Lithuania. 

They didn't even include the name of the country in the title of the article. They included a descriptor -- Russia's neighbor -- to explain to us uneducated ugly Americans who know nothing about planet Earth except for Hollywood gossip WHY they are TALKING about this country you probably know NOTHING about.

So for reasons I don't understand, Lithuania is considering getting in bed -- politically speaking -- with the likes of Donald Trump. I'm wondering what in the hell has gone so badly sideways in Lithuania that people there imagine this is a good idea.

I probably have NO HOPE of figuring out What in the HELL is wrong with you, Lithuania???? Do you have ANY idea how thoroughly awful Trump is??? 

Anyway, this is my blog about obscure places. And I am here to LEARN about Lithuania.

Wikipedia says Lithuania is a European country on the Baltic Sea that borders Poland. Gdansk is a city on the Baltic coast that used to be called Danzig when it was a German speaking freistadt, so a stone's throw from where my mother grew up living in fear of the live heels hissing at her on Sunday when her mom would buy fresh seafood at the docks, including live eel, and sometimes they escaped and hid under furniture.

Mom also had a fear of geese. They also hissed at her and interfered with her walk to school. I guess the gators and deer of Georgia bothered her less and, hey, we never saw such in our suburban neighborhood. The Baltic wildlife is apparently scary stuff for a young German girl post World War II.

Lithuania has 2.9 million people and eyeballing the map here, it's on par with the US in terms of population density. 

This article -- The Russia-Ukraine war and the spillover into the Baltic -- is dated 27 May 2026 and opens with this:

The Baltic Sea is becoming a more dangerous and disruptive operating environment as the Russia–Ukraine war spills into the region. Hybrid threats, sabotage, electronic interference, and strike-related disruption are converging to create a sharper and more volatile risk picture for commercial shipping.

Not really what I was looking for. I'm an environmental studies major looking for environmental distress and the mystery deepens because the article says Ukraine is tossing missiles into the Baltic region and Trump is in bed with President Zelenskyy, no doubt with a child or two between them, you know?

Why does Lithuania want to ally with TRUMP if Ukraine is the problem? I don't know. I don't follow the news and hate politics.

But TLDR of the article: The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is creating problems for commercial shipping and various Baltic ports and I guess people in the region don't have two functioning brain cells because they are cracking down on Russian ships as being a problem because Russian ships keep getting bombed and such.

Earth is doomed. 

AI says:

The Baltic Sea faces severe environmental challenges, including eutrophication, pollution, overfishing, invasive species, and climate change, which collectively threaten its fragile ecosystem and biodiversity.

Eutrophication

Eutrophication is the most critical environmental problem in the Baltic Sea. Excessive nutrient inputs, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture, wastewater, and urban runoff, stimulate massive algal blooms. When these algae die and decompose, oxygen is depleted in deeper waters, creating hypoxic or "dead zones" where marine life cannot survive. This process is exacerbated by the sea’s low salinity, limited water exchange with the North Sea, and stratified layers that restrict oxygen movement to the seabed, intensifying internal nutrient loading and perpetuating the cycle of oxygen depletion

Woot! Something I understand! Unlike politics.

The Baltic Sea's health is one of the most urgent environmental challenges for the nine surrounding countries, affecting diverse sectors from fishing to tourism.

That same article states the Baltic is among the most polluted seas and a search gets me one hit for wetland and none for wetlands and I'm failing to readily find the word itself to read whatever it says about it.

Half a century of wetland degradation suggests that the Baltic is probably distressed largely due to loss of wetlands because Europe, like the US, drains wetlands to create agricultural land. 

This is probably the primary root cause of eutrophication, high pollution and the warming of the Baltic because wetlands are carbon sinks. But no one cares what I think.

How do you restore wetlands? 

A search for that phrase gets me this meaningless AI gibberish:

Restoring wetlands involves assessing historical conditions, reestablishing natural hydrology, managing vegetation, and engaging communities to rebuild resilient ecosystems.

Oh, hey, something that's NOT gibberish:

Most wetlands that need restoring were drained on purpose. Agricultural ditches, road culverts, and levees pulled water off the land, lowered the water table, and dried out soils that had been saturated for centuries. Reversing that drainage is the foundation of every restoration project, regardless of whether you are working on a coastal salt marsh, an inland peat bog, or a prairie pothole.

Wikipedia says about Lithuania:

The public debt ratio in 2016 was 40% of GDP; it had been 15% in 2008.

And coincidentally Lithuania became an Associated Member State of CERN in 2018. They are in financial trouble and other countries are thrilled to dump their Not In My Back Yard projects on them.

I used to play a LOT of SimCity. I tested if it made economic sense to take the toxic waste plant business deal or not.

No, it didn't.

Take it from me, former homemaker and homeless blogger: You people are fucking up.

Anyway, I'm bored now. Not my problem.