May 28, 2014--Bedfellows

"Here's something else you won't believe." I was all agitated.

"What is it now?" Rona asked, immediately exasperated with me. It was still the three-day weekend and we had promised each other we would restrain ourselves from reading about or watching the news.

"You saw that Obama paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan where he spent . . ."

"Four hours," Rona completed my thought.

"To spend millions and millions to get him there so he could have a few pictures taken with the troops. What is really making me crazy is that while he was there some White House official released the names of those meeting with Obama and included the name of the head of the CIA there. The station chief. To 6,000 journalists."

"Can't anyone do anything right?" Rona was sounding even more exasperated.

"If Obama wanted to show support for the military on Memorial Day he should have gone to the VA hospital in Phoenix where screw-ups led to the deaths of maybe 40 veterans. To look into the issue himself and as a way of taking responsibility. But, no, there were better photo-ops available in Afghanistan. Where, by the way, the president refused to meet with Obama."

"You sound as if you're ready to join the Tea Party."

"No kidding. I understand their frustration and anger about the government. It's too big and much of it doesn't know how to get anything worthwhile done."

"More evidence of how wide discontent is with government, all government, are the results of this past weekend's elections across Europe."

"Yeah, where right-wing extremists who masqueraded as Populists won major victories. From England to France to Denmark and of course Greece."

"They are an unholy alliance. Half of them are out-of-the-closet anti-Semites and most of the rest are either neo-fascists, anti-European Union, anti-foreigner, or violently anti-immigrant."

"Very anti everything."

"Almost sounds like the situation in the U.S.," Rona said.

"We haven't seen too much anti-Semitism."

"Yet," Rona added.

"Touché. But look at this." I held up the first section of the Times. "Look at this other unholy alliance."

"Between?"

"Progressives and conservatives over their shared antipathy for the widespread movement in public education to bring a common curriculum to kids and, as part of that, to hold teachers accountable for how well their students do on standardized tests."

"I saw that. How teachers unions are opposing the so-called Common Core approach while our version of states-rights Populists are wanting to block any kind of federal role in public schooling. Especially any that Obama supports."

"Even though this movement didn't start with him but, ironically for these states-rightists, with governors and state legislators even in Red States.

"But don't expect these coalitions to hold together," Rona said, "At the moment they're in bed with each other. In America, as soon they together get rid of the Common Core and teacher accountability, they'll resume fighting amongst themselves. And don't forget, most of the conservatives who have joined with the teachers unions are the very same folks who have been agitating to get rid of teachers unions altogether."

"And in some places like Wisconsin, they've succeeded."

"So expect them to be at each other's throats before too long. But in the meantime . . ."

I winked, "I'll have something to keep me agitated."

"Which you love."

March 5, 2014--Putin

About Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush famously said, "I looked the man in the eye . . . [and] was able to get a sense of his soul."

This was after their first meeting in Slovenia and things, to Bush, felt warm and fuzzy.

Subsequently, the new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in March, 2009 in Switzerland, and to symbolize that she and Barack Obama were hoping for a "reset" in U.S.-Russian relations, gave him an gift-wrapped, actual reset button that she swiped from a Jacuzzi tub in Geneva.

On the other hand, there is Iran where Russia seems reluctant to endorse strong action in response to Iran's seeking to develop nuclear weapons and less than reluctance, intransigence in fact, when it comes to joining the West in intervening in the civil war in Syria, a client state of Russia's.

And now there is Ukraine.

It is feeling to some that the Cold War has resumed and people such as John McCain are sounding almost giddy about the possibility of dusting off the nukes.

If Barack Obama were to look in Putin's eyes, something he has clearly avoided doing, he would likely see the old KGB colonel residing there. he would peer into cold, emotionless, bitter killer's eyes. He might conclude that Putin is no partner for peace and stability but rather never stopped fighting the Cold War and couldn't care less about what the U.S or anyone in Europe might feel about his dictatorial, aggressive stance toward former coerced members of the Soviet Union.

But maybe, maybe Obama might see something else.

Back in 2008, the last time Putin's Russians intervened militarily in a former Soviet republic, in Georgia, Russia lived in a very different world. They were not then, as now, a fully integrated part of the global, especially Western economy.

There is lots of talk right now that European leaders will not act that tough when if comes to imposing economic sanctions because they are so dependent on Russian energy resources--mainly natural gas--with much of that coming west through pipelines that crisscross Ukraine.

But less discussed is the reaction within Russia to all of this saber rattling by another countervailing force--that of the hundreds of Russian plutocrat billionaires. They have a huge stack in seeing international market stability. They can't be happy seeing their wealth affected by the collapsing ruble and looming sanctions on their far-reaching operations and investments. Do not underestimate their political power. Particularly if the growing crisis further threatens their ill-gotten gains.

Then there is, my own speculation--Putin not wanting to spend his remaining years isolated in Russia, rejected by other members of the G-8. With his new girlfriend he appears to enjoy being out and gadding about, especially welcomed in places such as France where the food is so much better that Russian stuffed cabbage.