United Nations monitors have suspended their mission in Syria, blaming the move on an increase in violence. Needless to say, the ceasefire has failed.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE ENLIGHTENMENT DIVIDES AMERICAN POLITICS.
** OBAMA THIS WEEKEND. President Barack Obama is in Illinois and Mexico.
Obama has no scheduled public events on Saturday, which he is spending at home with the family in Chicago, Illinois.
At 4:30 PM Pacific, Obama departs Chicago on Air Force One en route to Los Cabos, Mexico.
At 8:30 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Here’s what Obama’s week ahead looks like. As usual, it has plenty of flexibility built in to deal with emerging dynamics and for crisis management not reflected in his public schedule.
On Monday and Tuesday, Obama will take part in the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico.
He will hold several bilateral meetings while there as well, including his first mini-summit with new/renewed Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is far less friendly to Obama and American interests than Putin’s ex-chief of staff, former President-turned-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Obama will return to the White House late Tuesday night.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House.
On Friday, Obama will travel to Orlando, Florida to deliver remarks at The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials’ Annual Conference. Obama will return to Washington on Friday evening.
While Obama is busy with the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, the Baja California resort area that includes the better known Cabo San Lucas — immortalized in the hit Van Halen song, “Cabo Wabo” (for yet another California angle, I remember those guys when they were the house band at Gazzari’s on the Sunset Strip) — the next phase of the Iranian nuclear negotiations will be going down in Moscow.
The US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany will negotiate with top Iranian officials over the Iranian nuclear program.
Sanctions spurred by the Obama Administration seem to be having a big impact on Iran, and that impact was furthered by the OPEC meeting in Vienna at which Gulf Arab states Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE made clear their intention to keep their production up to take up the slack of lost Iranian exports and to keep oil prices significantly lower than Iran needs now.
But is Iran going to back off? They’ve come this far. (All supposedly for a civilian nuclear power program in this post-Fukushima in which nuclear power is increasingly falling away as an option.)
And what will Israel do next?
The US State Department has backtracked on claims by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Russia is sending new attack helicopters to its Syrian ally, the Assad regime. The helos were already owned by Syria, and had been repaired by Russian technicians.
In addition to denying Clinton’s charge, Moscow accused the US of hypocrisy for selling military equipment to Bahrain as its government put down protesters there.
Meanwhile, the UN is ending its peacekeeping mission in Syria. Things have just gotten far too violent during the, er, agreed upon ceasefire.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama says that the stalemate in Washington is holding our economy back during a “make-or-break moment” for the middle class.
The new parliament, the country’s first democratically-elected parliament, has been dissolved. And a form of martial law is in effect.
Egypt’s Supreme Court threw the country’s politics into disarray by invalidating the laboriously elected national parliament.
The Egyptian presidential run-off is between Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi, who has a doctorate from USC, and retired Air Force General Ahmed Shafik, candidate of the old Mubarak crowd which also dominates the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is continuing a bus tour of some swing states, attacking Obama for failing the middle class on the economy and for supposedly fearing the impact of a war with Iran more than Iran having nuclear weapons.
He is also struggling to deal with Obama’s sudden move suspending the extensive deportations of young illegal immigrants his administration has been carrying out. This move will help Obama with the Latino community, which Romney has been trying to make some inroads with after running far right on immigration issues in the primaries.
Rommey has taken to characterizing his program as “A Fair Shot” for Americans.
As distinguished from the “Fair Deal” offered by President Harry Truman.
It sounds to me not like a social compact, which is implicit in a deal, but instead something more akin to a chance at the roulette table.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events.
Brown is continuing state budget negotiations even though the June 15th deadline has passed. And even though a budget bill has been adopted and sent to the governor.
Most of Brown’s big budget cuts seem to be accepted, leaving major contention in a few areas amounting to less than a billion dollars, including a potential trade-off between workfare overhaul and the provision of child care services, and in-home health care services.
But there isn’t really a new state budget yet. Despite legislative claims to the contrary, which leaders say justify their being paid despite not meeting the obvious spirit of the Prop 25 budget reform.
Why not?
Because most of the so-called “trailer bills” necessary to actually implement the budget have not been passed.
Much less signed by Brown.
Brown vetoed a budget last year, first time in California’s history that has happened, and is prepared to veto again.
But the process is far less disorderly, and hence is a big improvement, over what had been happening for a very long time until last year, and hence is an improvement, as former Governor Gray Davis pointed out to me on Friday.
Brown got more clearcut good news yesterday in the form of an unexpected increase in employment last month. California added another 34,000 jobs in May, and found that the previous month’s employment picture was upgraded from a slight decline to a gain of a few thousand jobs.
Continuing his history lessons, Brown proclaimed June 16th to be “Juneteenth” in California, as the true end to the institution of slavery in America:
“On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, officially ending slavery in the United States of America. It took three more years of war to defeat the upholders of that evil institution, and the toil of generations to erase its awful legacy.
“Each year, we celebrate the day known as “Juneteenth” as the true anniversary of the end of slavery. Texas was among the last states to allow ownership of slaves, and on June 18th, 1865, Union troops led by General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston to enforce the President’s order. On the following day, June 19th, General Granger formally announced the end of slavery in Texas and hence the liberation of some of the last men and women to be legally held as slaves in our country.
“I call on all Californians to observe Juneteenth as an important milestone in our long march towards equality; a reminder of the great contributions African-Americans have made as free citizens of our nation, as well as the injustices they suffered as slaves; and the courage of our forebears of all races and creeds who gave their lives to the fight against slavery.”
NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim June 16, 2012, as “Juneteenth.”
** LOOKING FORWARD FROM MAD MEN‘S MEANDERING SEASON 5: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (ONE CAN ONLY HOPE) … From my June 13th essay.
China launched its most ambitious space mission yet this weekend, carrying its first female astronaut and two male colleagues aloft in an attempt to dock with an orbiting module and work on board for more than a week. This voyage of the three taikonauts is preparation for a planned Chinese space station.
** MIDWAY: 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST PIVOTAL BATTLES CAME IN MIDST OF OBAMA’S BIG STRATEGIC PIVOT TO THE PACIFIC. … From my June 9th essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil closed on Friday at $84.03 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $50 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $30 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Speaking today in swing state Ohio, at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, President Barack Obama said the U.S. economy isn’t where it needs to be, but added that his administration has been digging out of hole created by millions of lost jobs before he took office.
** QUICK HITS. The US State Department is backtracking on claims by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton early in the week that Russia is sending new attack helicopters to its Syrian ally, the Assad regime. The helos were already owned by Syria, and had been repaired by Russian technicians. … In addition to denying Clinton’s charge, Moscow accused the US of hypocrisy for selling military equipment to Bahrain as its government put down protesters there. … What critics are calling a “legal coup” is happening in Egypt in advance of this weekend’s presidential run-off election. The new parliament, the country’s first democratically-elected parliament, is dissolved. And martial law is in effect. … While budget negotiations between Governor Jerry Brown and legislative leaders continue, the legislature is preparing for votes on Friday, the legal deadline for budget passage. But the situation remains somewhat fluid.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE ENLIGHTENMENT DIVIDE IN AMERICAN POLITICS.
** NEW POLL: MORE BLAME BUSH THAN OBAMA FOR ECONOMIC TROUBLES. President Barack Obama has been in office for more than three years now, but his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, still gets the lion’s share of the blame for America’s sluggish economy, according to a new Gallup Poll.
Since conservative Republican challenger Mitt Romney is running on much the same platform as that of the Bush/Cheney Administration, that is a big problem for him.
And Obama isn’t getting any more blame now than he did last September, endless cable noise chatter to the contrary.
Americans continue to place more blame for the nation’s economic problems on George W. Bush than on Barack Obama, even though Bush left office more than three years ago. The relative economic blame given to Bush versus Obama today is virtually the same as it was last September. …
Gallup first asked this “blame assessment” question in July 2009, six months after Obama became president. At that point, 80% of Americans gave Bush a great deal or a moderate amount of blame, compared with 32% who ascribed the same level of blame for the bad economy to Obama. The percentage blaming Bush dropped to about 70% in August 2010, and has stayed roughly in that range since. Meanwhile, about half of Americans have blamed Obama since March 2010, with little substantive change from then to the present.
Americans continue to name the economy as the most important problem facing the country, and in an election that likely will be defined by a struggling economy, the question of who is responsible for it will weigh heavily in voters’ minds. Both Obama and presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney as a result have focused heavily on the economy in their campaigns, the most recent example of which is the major economic speech Obama will deliver Thursday in the key swing state of Ohio. Romney has attempted to place blame for the country’s continuing economic struggles squarely on Obama’s shoulders. At the same time, the Obama campaign is trying to deflect blame away from the president, in part by assigning blame to his predecessor. …
68% of Americans say former President Bush should be given a great deal or a moderate amount of blame for the nation’s economic woes — substantially more than say the same about Obama. This suggests that Obama’s argument that he is on the right track and needs more time to turn the economy around could fall on receptive ears, particularly those of independents.
** JERRY-RIGGING: AN INTRIGUING INTERVIEW. With negotiations on the California state budget coming down to the short strokes, there is an intriguing new interview with Governor Jerry Brown, conducted by veteran writer and USC Annenberg Professor Marc Cooper, out in the new publication Pacific Standard.
It’s excerpted from a longer forthcoming piece. Here’s some of the flavor of it.
Marc Cooper: Your tax initiative has been melded with the so-called “millionaire’s tax” and will hit the top percent of income earners the hardest. Some of your critics say, “Here we go again. Jerry is staking the state’s future on the cyclical income of the business cycle, it’s too volatile.”
Jerry Brown: The top 1 percent in the state increased its share of the income from 10 to 22 percent. The bottom 80 percent of the state is declining. That’s just a fairness fact. The surveys indicate very clearly that no other tax [other than the one I propose] is going to pass. The alternative is not some broader-based tax, it’s doubling up on the cuts. People don’t want that either. The voters say they do want this tax, by a majority so why not give them a chance to vote on it? Yeah, I’d rather have a broader tax, there should be ways to have a more rational tax, but that is not viable. It’s not going to pass the Legislature, it’s not going to pass by initiative. It’s a non-starter. So the only choice is even more cuts or the tax I’m proposing, or one very close to it.
MC: Californians have spent 20 years giving the thumbs down to higher taxes. What makes you think all of a sudden things have changed?
JB: First of all, we don’t know how open they are to it until we get to the election.
MC: But you think they are, or you wouldn’t propose it.
JB: There’s no choice—I’m doing the best I can. We’ve got our backs to the wall here. It may prove to be illusory, but we have an opening and we’re gonna take it. I think there’s a sense that those who’ve been blessed with so much good fortune should help the state in its dire need. I think that’s a belief. Secondly, the constant reductions—the university, public schools, police, other public services, library hours, all that. Enough already.”
…
MC: Some people say the state will never get fixed until Prop 13, which you signed in 1979, is radically reformed. We need a split roll, they say, that would raise taxes on commercial property while keeping them low on homeowners. Only then would we see a sort of tax equity that would produce the revenue we really need to float a state as grand as California. Are we going to see any proposals like that in a second term?
JB: None that I am ready to recommend.
MC: Why not?
JB: I just don’t want to go there. I’m just not ready to recommend a split roll on Prop 13. If you want a split roll, go organize your friends and put it on the ballot. I don’t see it happening. There’d be a hell of a lot of opposition. I don’t reject any idea out of hand—everything is possible. But lots of businesses are hurting—you increase their property taxes, that’ll be a problem.
MC: There are other more mild reform proposals out there from groups like Think Long and California Forward who argue that the state mostly needs structural reform, something you don’t talk about much.
JB: Think Long had a big thing on taxing services and they couldn’t get it anywhere. They wanted a value added tax. Well, hallelujah. Probably would make sense, but very hard to pull off. It would take all the Republicans and all the Democrats saying we need it, and that just isn’t going to happen.
MC: What about other reforms, like doing away with the two-thirds majority needed to raise taxes?
JB: You can’t get [the legislature] to lower the two-thirds on taxes, you’ve got to put it before the people. It’s all up to the voters. I took the path I felt had the highest probability of success, and it is by no means guaranteed. So we’re moving forward carefully. Reform is always on the table, but people who say they’re going to transform whole systems have to be careful.
MC: Because?
JB: Because things are rarely transformed. …
Iran and Saudi Arabia are jockeying for position at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting in Vienna, Austria. Iran, struggling with a loss of markets due to sanctions against its nuclear program, wants higher prices, but Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates are keeping their production up. Each power is pushing to control the OPEC leadership post.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE ENLIGHTENMENT DIVIDES AMERICAN POLITICS.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington, Ohio, and New York.
Obama received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then flew on Air Force One to Cleveland, Ohio.
At 10:05 AM Pacific, Obama lands in Cleveland.
At 10:45 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks on the economy at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland.
This is Obama’s major framing speech on the economy.
At 12:25 PM Pacific, Obama departs Cleveland on Air Force One en route New York City.
At 1:35 PM Pacific, Obama arrives at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
At 2:15 PM Pacific, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will visit the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s World Trade Center site, and receive a briefing on construction progress.
This, of course, is the rebuilding of the site attacked and destroyed by Al Qaeda on 9/11.
At 3:45 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a fundraiser at a private residence in Manhattan.
At 6:55 PM Pacific, the Obamas deliver remarks at a fundraiser at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.
At 8:35 PM Pacific, the Obamas depart New York City on Air Force One en route Joint Base Andrews.
At 9:30 PM Pacific, the Obamas arrive at Joint Base Andrews, where they board Marine One.
At 9:45 PM Pacific, the Obamas land on the South Lawn of the White House.
President Barack Obama presented Israeli President Shimon Peres with the Medal of Freedom last night at the White House., calling him the essence of Israel itself. Peres is Israel’s ninth president and is a former prime minister of the Jewish state. Obama is working to keep relations with Israel on an even keel as a much-threatened war with Iran looms.
Egypt’s Supreme Court today threw the country’s politics into disarray by invalidating the laboriously elected national parliament.
The Egyptian presidential run-off is this coming weekend, between Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi, who has a doctorate from USC, and retired Air Force General Ahmed Shafik, candidate of the old Mubarak crowd which also dominates the Supreme Court.
In Syria, the Assad regime’s crackdown against reform forces continues. Russia denies Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s charge that it is sending attack helicopters to Assad, saying that it is merely repairing already provided equipment.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown is continuing state budget negotiations in advance of the June 15th deadline.
Negotiations between Brown and Democratic legislative leaders and interest groups are getting down to the short strokes in advance of the June 15th deadline.
Most of Brown’s big budget cuts seem to be accepted, leaving major contention in a few areas amounting to less than a billion dollars, including a potential trade-off between workfare overhaul and the provision of child care services, and in-home health care services.
Nearly 50 people were arrested yesterday in California’s Capitol demonstrating against impending social service cuts in the new state budget.
Brown vetoed a budget last year, first time in California’s history that has happened, and is prepared to veto again.
In less contentious news, delivering another history lesson, Brown proclaimed today to be Flag Day:
On June 14th, 1777, in the midst of our struggle to free ourselves from the colonial rule of Great Britain, the Second Continental Congress adopted the “Stars and Stripes” as the flag of the nascent United States of America.
Since that day, our flag has served not only as a cherished national emblem, but also as a beacon of liberty and self-determination for peoples around the world. Our brave armed forces, marching and sailing under the Stars and Stripes, have vanquished far-flung and powerful adversaries for over two hundred years. The buildings where we make, interpret, and execute our laws all proudly fly the flag, as do the schools where our children acquire the skills they need to become citizens in a free society. The number of stars on the flag, symbolizing each of our states, has grown from thirteen to fifty, but the underlying principles of justice and equality remain the same.
Each year, we celebrate the birthday of the Stars and Stripes on the anniversary of its adoption. I call on all Californians to join in this nationwide observance by displaying the flag at their homes and businesses, and by taking the time to remember all that it represents.
The final three minutes of Mad Men‘s Season 5 finale, which I think may redeem the entire uneven season just past.
** LOOKING FORWARD FROM MAD MEN‘S MEANDERING SEASON 5: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (ONE CAN ONLY HOPE) … From my June 13th essay.
** MIDWAY: 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST PIVOTAL BATTLES CAME IN MIDST OF OBAMA’S BIG STRATEGIC PIVOT TO THE PACIFIC. … From my June 9th essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $83 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $49 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $31 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Remember Iraq? Some 60 people were killed today in attacks across the country, mostly Shia pilgrims. There’s tremendous sectarian strife between Shia and Sunni in the country, whose government is increasingly aligned with Iran as will be clear in the OPEC meeting in Vienna, starting on Thursday.
** QUICK HITS. The US Justice Department today dismissed the remaining five charges against former US Senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards for supposedly engaging in corrupt violation of campaign finance laws. He was acquitted of the sixth charge last month, with the jury deadlocked on the five charges dismissed today. This was a silly case to begin with. … Nearly 50 people were arrested today in California’s Capitol demonstrating against impending social service cuts in the new state budget. … Governor Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders are still negotiating on the shape of the budget, with differences whittled down to the hundreds of millions. … June 15th is the deadline for passage of a budget. Brown vetoed a budget last year, first time in California’s history that has happened, and is prepared to veto again.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE ENLIGHTENMENT DIVIDES AMERICAN POLITICS.
** LOOKING FORWARD FROM MAD MEN‘S MEANDERING SEASON 5: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (ONE CAN ONLY HOPE)
Ida Sessions: “Are you alone?”
Jake Gittes: “Isn’t everyone?”
from Chinatown
And all the disparate threads of Mad Men’s Season 5 came together to send us into a long off-season … Well, no. A season full of rather disconnected showpieces, or stunts, depending on how cheery one wants to be about the show’s abandonment of its very coherent narrative structure, ended with several largely disconnected happenings, culminating in a closing scene that came within the perilous vicinity of The Sopranos’ notorious ending. More about that later.
Actually, what did jell in the uneven finale to this most uneven of Mad Men seasons is the pervasively dour attitude that permeates the show even as it moves into one of the most colorful and dynamic periods in American history. But that had already jelled this season. Or, put another way, congealed.
Of course, I see another possibility, suggested by the choice of the great Bond theme song “You Only Live Twice” as the extro music for the season. That we have just been through two seasons of taking down Don Draper, in Season 4, then giving him what he thinks is “happiness,” in Season 5, only to have the essential man that so intrigued from the beginning return for the rest of the series. In which case, Don’s silent look at the end of the episode is the equivalent of Schwarzenegger saying: “I’ll be back.”
Is it possible that the last three minutes of the episode redeemed the entire season? I’ll return to that rather happy thought after slogging through this season finale.
As always, there be some spoilers ahead. Incidentally, you can see all my Mad Men pieces, going back to 2009, here in The Mad Men File.
It’s April 1967, some time after Lane Pryce’s suicide of the previous episode. Sterling Cooper Draper sans Pryce is booming, so much so that it’s expanding its office space to the fabled upstairs. But does that make these folks happy happy happy? Need you ask?
Don Draper is doing just fine, especially in his work, which is flourishing. Well, he’s doing fine except for the overly portentous imagery surrounding him … Spectral visitations from the brother he inadvertently forced into suicide in Season 1 (much guilt over Lane, perhaps?) and a bad tooth he tries to ignore but which, but of course, signifies a deeper rot. Having noted those anvils, I think I’ll ignore them.
But Megan, who rejected advertising, at which she is a natural, in favor of acting, one of the ultimate crap shoot fields, is struggling. She’s going out on auditions, but she’s not getting cast. She feels like a failure. So, in something of a state, she pushes Don to have her cast in a national TV ad. Which he finally does, though he has mixed feelings about it. That gets us to our season-ending scene, which I’ll return to in several moments. …
** NEW SURVEY: ECONOMIC CONFIDENCE DIPS. A new Gallup Poll survey has some bad news and some better news for President Barack Obama.
Economic confidence dipped last week from a four-year high, as it were.
But the dip comes from Democrats.
Are they going to vote for Mitt Romney?
Not bloody likely.
But they might stay home if Obama is not careful. Or, more accurately, too careful.
Americans’ confidence in the economy declined slightly last week, on the heels of a disappointing jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index was -20 for the week ending June 10, down from -18 the prior week and a four-year best -16 the week before that. Still, economic confidence remains significantly better than in late 2011. Confidence at that time was rising as unemployment began steadily falling. …
Economic confidence held steady at -17 June 1-3 after the June 1 jobs report and the year’s worst day of trading, but slipped last week. However, concerns last week about the economic situation in Spain combined with perceptions of a sputtering U.S. jobs climate may have led to the slight pullback in confidence. …
The decline in economic confidence last week was driven by Democrats, whose index score dropped eight points compared with the previous week, from 16 to 8. Republicans’ confidence improved slightly to -45 and independents’ was flat at -23. Still, Democrats continue to be significantly more confident in the economy than Republicans, and the decline last week in Democratic confidence did little to close the gap. …
Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney, addressing the Business Roundtable in Washington this morning, said that when it comes to the economy the federal government’s chief responsibility is to help business.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE ENLIGHTENMENT DIVIDES AMERICAN POLITICS.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama has received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
At 10:40 AM Pacific, Obama signs S. 3261, contract awards for large air tankers for the Forest Service, in the Oval Office.
At 12:20 PM Pacific, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden hold a bilateral meeting with President Shimon Peres of Israel in the Oval Office.
At 1:40 PM Pacific, Obama attends a fundraiser at The W Hotel.
At 4:10 PM Pacific, Obama awards Israeli President Shimon Peres the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian decoration, at a dinner in the East Room. Obama and President Peres deliver toasts.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown is continuing state budget negotiations in advance of the June 15th deadline.
Negotiations between Brown and Democratic legislative leaders and interest groups are getting down to the short strokes in advance of the June 15th deadline.
Most of Brown’s big budget cuts seem to be accepted, leaving major contention in a few areas amounting to less than a billion dollars, including a potential trade-off between workfare overhaul and the provision of child care services, and in-home health care services.
Some legislative leaders are looking at using alternative fuels and greenhouse gas cap and trade funds to fill general budget holes. That seems quite problematic.
Protests which may be big are shaping up for today in and around the Capitol. 10 protesters were arrested yesterday.
Hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer, co-chair with then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State George Shultz of the successful campaign to defeat the anti-climate change program initiative of 2010, yesterday put $20 million into his initiative campaign to end a major corporate tax break and redirect the funds to renewable energy development and budget balancing.
** MIDWAY: 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST PIVOTAL BATTLES CAME IN MIDST OF OBAMA’S BIG STRATEGIC PIVOT TO THE PACIFIC. … From my June 9th essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
There is worry across the Eurozone that the successful bail-out of Spain’s banks may not be enough. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti continues to insist that Rome is not in need of a bailout. But many worry that austerity measures will not save the Italian economy. In Greece, this weekend’s election will determine whether Athens accepts the Eurozone’s bailout and austerity scheme or if it could be the first nation to drop out of the economic bloc.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $83 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $49 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $31 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton charged today in Washington that Russia is sending attack helicopters to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
** QUICK HITS.California budget negotiations between Governor Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders and interest groups are getting down to the short strokes in advance of the June 15th deadline. Most of Brown’s big budget cuts seem to be accepted, leaving major contention in a few areas amounting to less than a billion dollars, including a potential trade-off between workfare overhaul and the provision of child care services, and in-home health care services. … Some legislative leaders are looking at using alternative fuels and greenhouse gas cap and trade funds to fill general budget holes. That seems quite problematic. … Protests which may be big are shaping up for the Capitol on Wednesday. … Hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer, co-chair with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State George Shultz of the successful campaign to defeat the anti-climate change program initiative of 2010, today put $20 million into his initiative campaign to close a major corporate tax break and redirect the funds to renewable energy development and budget balancing.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MAD MEN‘S MEANDERING SEASON CONCLUDES: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (ONE CAN ONLY HOPE) and THE ENLIGHTENMENT DIVIDES AMERICAN POLITICS.
** OBAMA’S LATEST BIG CALIFORNIA TAKE. It’s a rocky road to re-election for President Barack Obama, but he sure can count on the Golden State.
Big time.
My sources tell me that Obama raised some $6.5 million here last week.
That’s $4.5 million in the Los Angeles area, and another $2 million in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Obama scored especially well with the LGBT community in the ongoing wake of his dramatic yet quite logical endorsement of same sex marriage.
And Obama, of course, has nothing to worry about when it comes to carrying California in November. He’s ahead here by roughly 20 points over conservative Republican challenger Mitt Romney, despite the fact that Romney is building a would-be Western White House on the beach outside San Diego.
It even has an elevator for Romney’s cars.
He’s going to need a lot more than a special cliffside elevator along the beach for his cars, however.
One-fifth of the electoral votes needed to win the White House are to be had in California, and Obama is going to get them all.
Speaking this morning at a rally in Orlando, Florida, Mitt Romney said President Barack Obama “is so out of touch.” The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was referring to Obama’s comment last week that the private sector is “doing fine.” But is Romney the one to make this sort of charge, or is he walking into a long-range trap of his own making?
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MAD MEN‘S MEANDERING SEASON CONCLUDES: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (ONE CAN ONLY HOPE) and THE ENLIGHTENMENT DIVIDES AMERICAN POLITICS.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
Obama has received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then departed the White House for Baltimore, Maryland, where he delivered remarks at a private residence in Owings Mills.
At 11:20 AM Pacific, Obama attends a campaign event at the Hyatt Regency in Baltimore.
At 12:45 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Hyatt Regency in Baltimore.
At 1:45 PM Pacific, Obama departs Baltimore on Air Force One en route to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
At 2:20 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Philadelphia.
At 3:10 PM Pacific, Obama attends a campaign event at the Benjamin Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
At 4:45 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Benjamin Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
At 6:05 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Benjamin Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
At 7:20 PM Pacific, Obama departs Philadelphia on Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews.
At 8:05 PM Pacific, Obama arrives at Joint Base Andrews, where he boards Marine One.
At 8:20 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde, speaking this morning in Washington, issued a stark warning that the world faces a crisis in three parts declining incomes, environmental damage and social unrest unless countries take a more sustainable approach to economic management. Speaking ahead of the upcoming Rio+20 Earth Summit Lagarde said rich countries must rein in their greed as poverty continues to rise. She also backed green taxes to help protect the environment. Lagarde takes to Rio a three-pronged package for economic growth, environmental protection and social progress.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Sacramento.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown is continuing state budget negotiations in advance of the June 15th deadline.
His administration will announce agreements with various union bargaining units to secure the needed 5% cuts in compensation costs he is demanding as part of his state budget cuts.
Brown, pointing to victories for public pension reform measures last Tuesday in San Jose and San Diego, is also pushing for action on his public pension reform proposal to backstop support for his November revenue initiative.
Meanwhile, a far right coalition that already announced its opposition to Brown’s November revenue initiative announced it again, actually getting some ADD coverage.
** MIDWAY: 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST PIVOTAL BATTLES CAME IN MIDST OF OBAMA’S BIG STRATEGIC PIVOT TO THE PACIFIC. … From my June 9th essay.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
Tens of thousands of Russians flooded into Moscow Tuesday for the first mass protest against President Vladimir Putin since he returned to the top job in May. The country is marking Russia Day. Numbers appear to have swelled well beyond a 50,000 limit, despite a series of raids on the homes of protest leaders.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $83 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $49 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $31 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
At the end of his nine-day “Pacific Pivot” trip, winding up in the place from which he seeks to extricate the US, Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed even greater frustration with Pakistan.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MAD MEN SEASON FINALE: “THE PHANTOM” and THE ENLIGHTENMENT DIVIDES AMERICAN POLITICS.
** MIDWAY: 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST PIVOTAL BATTLES CAME IN MIDST OF OBAMA’S BIG STRATEGIC PIVOT TO THE PACIFIC.The 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway, one of history’s most important battles, has come and gone, with little attention paid. The anniversary, June 4-7, took place while Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was in the midst of a very important trip to the Asia Pacific region which also passed with little notice.
The former CIA director and veteran California political figure’s nine-day trip was merely to lay the groundwork for a major re-set of America’s geopolitical priorities, what’s been called “the Pacific Pivot” (though lately re-dubbed the “rebalancing” to calm Europeanists), from over-engagement with the Islamic world to increased engagement with Asia.
And Midway? In my opinion, this Pacific battle was merely the most important American battle since Gettysburg. No, I don’t think the most important battle since the hinge of the Civil War, without which the Union would have been rent asunder, was D-Day, as epic as that was. By June 6th, 1944, the fascist forces in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East had been driven back, and Hitler was hunkering down in his “Festung Europa.” The Allies were winning with greater numbers and materiel. D-Day was a culmination of a process years in the making. It might have failed, but that was unlikely, for it had massive, even inexorable, might behind it.
Midway, in contrast, was a far more perilous encounter. It found the US Navy at a decided disadvantage against the Imperial Japanese Navy. In the six months between Pearl Harbor and Midway, the US and its allies in the Pacific had suffered an endless string of losses. If the Navy lost its precious handful of aircraft carriers off Midway, to the superior Japanese force, Hawaii’s defense would have been untenable and an already romping Japanese military would have had free reign across the Pacific, where it had already made incredible progress in setting up an empire under the rubric of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
The sacrifice of the US Asiatic Fleet, virtually forgotten today, except for aficionados of one of John Ford’s greatest films, 1945′s They Were Expendable, a mostly true life story about the PT boats and others fighting a losing battle in the Philippines to buy time for the US to regroup after December 7th, 1941, was huge. The larger US Pacific Fleet, devastated by the Pearl Harbor attack, survived with a series of raids, largely to boost morale, by the handful of aircraft carriers that fortunately escaped the carnage of Oahu. Franklin Roosevelt had perhaps his greatest test of public leadership in keeping American spirits up during this very dark period.
This otherwise valuable AP story, the only major article to mark Midway’s 70th anniversary, is misleading in making intelligence sound far more precise than it was, extensively a retired officer who’d been a young ensign at the time. The US was able to read Japanese code, but only parts of messages, here and there. In fact, it took a faked American message about a non-existent drinking water crisis on Midway, which the Navy knew that Japanese would pick up and report on, to determine that it was Midway under discussion in the Japanese plans.
But even that left vast elements to chance. There were no satellites in those days. Radar was unreliable. All the aircraft were propeller-driven. Slow-flying scout planes, were used extensively to try to find enemy ships. Aircraft navigation and communications were spotty. …
But despite the lack of a glamorous locale, Midway was absolutely central to our past and present. And the big geopolitical pivot, again centered on the Pacific, now underway looks to be central to our future.
I discussed the Pacific Pivot last Thanksgiving here on the Huffington Post in “Darwinian: Obama Goes Post-Iraq in Oz, Republicans Race To the Past.”
The big pivot will make Darwin, Australia, where we are liked, much more important to US strategy than Kabul, Afghanistan, where we are not liked.
Panetta laid out the approach, first in his little-noted commencement address late last month at the U.S. Naval Academy, then in a session at the annual Shangri-la Dialogue on security issues in Singapore.
Last weekend, at the Shangri-la Dialogue on security policy in the Pacific Basin, Defense Secretary Panetta discussed the scenario.
Panetta said that the US Navy will shift most of its ships to the Asia Pacific region in coming years, and that six of the fleet’s 10 aircraft carriers and their supporting strike groups will be based and on patrol in the Pacific.
He stressed that the US seeks cooperation with China and not confrontation. But having more USN firepower in the region will backstop Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines, all of which share the South China Sea but which are having serious problems with China, which attempts to claim nearly all of it. …
Changing a big country’s geostrategic posture, which is what the Obama Administration is fixing to do, is like turning around not a speedboat but an aircraft carrier. Especially when the country is still heavily engaged in the old direction.
Of course, Obama himself made it harder to do by ramping up dramatically in Afghanistan, which has turned into the predictable cluster, ah, scene.
And, as long as America is stuck on oil, it’s going to be involved in the Islamic world. All the more reason to focus at last on the need to shift away from the old energy economy of fossil fuels to the new energy economy of renewables and efficiency.
But there is involvement and there is disastrous entanglement. And that’s the distinction that must be drawn as the big pivot begins and carries on.
It’s all going to be quite fascinating, with many questions to raise and answer as we go.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama urges Congress to take action now save teaching jobs and preserve the foundation of education.
** OBAMA THIS WEEKEND. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
He has received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama has no scheduled public events on Saturday or Sunday.
Obama was engaged in damage control heading into the weekend after a rare gaffe. Why would he say the private sector is doing “fine?”
Because he’s comparing it to public sector job cuts, which drag down the employment picture?
Because most of the people he sees are rich? His fundraising is going great guns. Romney bested him this past month, but not by much, and only because he was able to tap his core backers for the first time for the bigger money amounts. (It looks like Obama just raised another $5 million or so on his latest California fundraising trip. I mentioned the LA leg earlier in the week. Former state Controller Steve Westly was at the Obama national finance meeting in Chicago, but it looks like the Bay Area chipped in another $2 million or so.)
Because he wants to make the race really interesting? I can sympathize, but really now, that’s not a very good reason for HIM to do that.
Because he’s catching Romney’s foot-in-mouth disease? It was quite out of character for Obama to say something so demonstrably foolish.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has no public events after a whirlwind Asia Pacifictour. Now we will see over the next few weeks and months what sort of take he really got in pushing for the new “Pacific Pivot.”
Here’s what Obama’s week ahead looks like.
As usual, there is plenty of room built in to allow response to events, and his private crisis management is not reflected in the public schedule.
On Monday, Obama will attend the proverbial meetings at the White House.
On Tuesday, Obama will travel to Baltimore, Maryland, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to attend campaign events. He will return to Washington, DC in the evening.
On Wednesday, Obama will award Israeli President Shimon Peres the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a dinner at the White House.
On Thursday, Obama will travel to Cleveland, Ohio for a campaign event.
UN observers in Syria who went to the massacre village of Al-Qubayr said they saw blood on the walls and were hit by a “stench of burnt flesh” but could not confirm how many died.
Obama will then travel to New York where he and First Lady Michelle Obama will visit the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s World Trade Center site and receive a briefing on construction progress. The visit will be a preview of the One World Trade Center topping-off ceremony, which will symbolize the near-completion of the iconic building’s framework. The Obamas will then attend campaign events in New York City, before returning to Washington later in the evening.
On Friday, Obama will hold a reception at the White House to observe LGBT Pride Month.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown is continuing state budget negotiations in advance of the June 15th deadline.
His administration will announce agreements with various union bargaining units to secure the needed 5% cuts in compensation costs he is demanding as part of his state budget cuts.
Brown, pointing to victories for public pension reform measures on Tuesday in San Jose and San Diego, is also pushing for action on his public pension reform proposal to backstop support for his November revenue initiative.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil closed on Friday at $84.10 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $50 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $30 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Republican leaders spent most of the day jumping all over President Barack Obama’s statement that the private sector is doing fine. They are also calling on the president to sign legislation extending all tax cuts, including those for the rich, as that is their prime issue.
** QUICK HITS. President Barack Obama was engaged in damage control today after a rare gaffe. Why would he say the private sector is doing “fine?” … Because he’s comparing it to public sector job cuts, which drag down the employment picture? … Because most of the people he sees are rich? His fundraising is going great guns. Romney bested him this past month, but not by much, and only because he was able to tap his core backers for the first time for the bigger money amounts. … Because he wants to make the race really interesting? … Because he’s catching Romney’s foot-in-mouth disease? … It was quite out of character for Obama to say something so demonstrably foolish. … Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had no public events today after a whirlwind Asian tour. Now we will see over the next few weeks and months what sort of take he really got in pushing for the new “Pacific Pivot.” … Governor Jerry Brown continued budget negotiations today. His administration is meeting with various union bargaining units to secure the needed 5% cut in compensation costs he is demanding as part of his state budget cuts.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MIDWAY FROM MIDWAY: UNSUNG 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST IMPORTANT BATTLES COMES AS OBAMA TRIES “THE PACIFIC PIVOT” and MAD MEN‘S SEASON FINALE: “THE PHANTOM.”
President Barack Obama this morning urged Europe’s leaders to act quickly and decisively to solve the continent’s economic crisis. Obama says there are solutions available to European leaders, including injecting capital into weak banks.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MIDWAY FROM MIDWAY: UNSUNG 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST IMPORTANT BATTLES COMES AS OBAMA TRIES “THE PACIFIC PIVOT” and MAD MEN‘S SEASON FINALE: “THE PHANTOM.”
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then delivered a statement on the economy in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.
Following that, he and Vice President Joe Biden met for lunch in the Private Dining Room.
Obama then met with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia in the Oval Office.
At 11 AM Pacific, Obama holds a bilateral meeting with President Benigno Aquino II of the Philippines in the Oval Office.
At 11:50 AM Pacific, Obama honors the Super Bowl XLVI Champion New York Giants on the South Lawn.
At 2:10 PM Pacific, Obama attends a fundraiser at The Jefferson Hotel.
Obama made some cogent points this morning about the multi-faceted and transnational nature of the economic challenge, as you can see in the clip above.
But he also made a significant gaffe, saying that the US private sector is “doing fine.”
Naturally, Republicans jumped all over this, and Obama was forced to appear after his session with Philippine President Aquino — in Washington to discuss the “Pacific Pivot” in American geopolitics I’m about to write about again — to acknowledge his error.
UN observers seeking to visit the site of a recent massacre in Syria came under attack late yesterday, then were forcefully turned away by Assad regime forces. That Kofi Annan ceasefire deal really hasn’t worked out.
Afghan officials complained for a third day that NATO forces have killed civilians, reiterating anger over how 18 civilians were killed in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
With the UN-negotiated ceasefire in tatters, training is ramping up for the opposition fighters in Syria who are part of the so-called Free Syrian Army, which was founded last July when a group of military officers deserted.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown and Democratic legislative leaders continue to negotiate, working to meet a June 15th California budget deadline, are about $2 billion apart on Brown’s proposed cuts, mostly in welfare, child care, and in-home care.
Brown, pointing to victories for public pension reform measures on Tuesday in San Jose and San Diego, is also pushing for action on his public pension reform proposal to backstop support for his November revenue initiative.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $84 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $50 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $30 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking today in Istanbul, condemned the Syrian government for “simply unconscionable” violence, accusing President Bashar Assad of intensifying a crackdown that has already killed thousands.
** QUICK HITS.UN observers seeking to visit the site of a recent massacre in Syria came under attack late today, then were forcefully turned away by Assad regime forces. That Kofi Annan ceasefire deal really hasn’t worked out. … Media reports today say that Governor Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders, working to meet a June 15th California budget deadline, are about $2 billion apart on Brown’s proposed cuts, mostly in welfare, child care, and in-home care. … Republican legislators, having decided to say only “No,” are out of the governance loop, leaving it to Brown to push for fiscal discipline.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … MIDWAY FROM MIDWAY: UNSUNG 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST IMPORTANT BATTLES COMES AS OBAMA TRIES “THE PACIFIC PIVOT.”
** NEW SURVEY: MOST DON’T SEE LAST FRIDAY’S JOBS REPORT AS A BIG DEAL AND VIEW ECONOMY SAME AS BEFORE. This morning, President Barack Obama, raising still more money in California, got good economic news in the form of another drop in unemployment filings. It came in the wake of a somewhat controversial report last Friday that the unemployment rate had slipped upwards again, with much more anemic than expected job growth.
The Friday report caused a sensation on cable news and in most of the moment-to-moment media. But was a big deal for voters?
The Obama crew did a good job ignoring media hyperventilation in 2008. But they get more caught up in now, allowing themselves to become agitated along with the audience, agitation being the point. (Fox likes to fire up right-wingers with outrageousness and make liberals feel bad, MSNBC likes to make liberals feel self-righteous and neurotic, CNN likes to bore people, etc. Which is why I watch international channels.)
Maybe Team O should chill. The popular view of the economy remains the same now as it was before last Friday’s report.
Despite extensive news coverage of what was widely portrayed as a disappointing government jobs report last Friday, Americans are about as likely to describe it as “mixed” (40%) as to say it is “negative” (42%), with a small minority characterizing it as “positive” (9%). But Americans who view the report as negative are more likely to say it was somewhat negative rather than very negative. …
The government reported that 69,000 new jobs were created in May, the lowest amount so far this year, and that the overall unemployment rate rose from 8.1% in April to 8.2% in May. Most news accounts of the report portrayed it in a negative light. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by more than 270 points in Friday’s trading after the report was released, and there was widespread discussion of a “stalled” economy and of the potentially deleterious impact of the report on President Obama’s re-election chances. As NPR host Robert Siegel said on “All Things Considered” Friday afternoon: “It was the worst day of the year on the stock market. The Dow fell 274 points, putting the index back into negative territory for the year. The big reason? The latest monthly jobs report came in far weaker than expected. In May, the economy added just 69,000 new jobs.” …
Despite Friday’s jobs data, ongoing Gallup Daily tracking data continue to show little to no change in Americans’ views of the overall economy since the report was released.
Americans’ ratings of the current economy are essentially the same in the five days since the report as they were in the five previous days of interviewing, with an insignificant three-point increase in the percentage rating the economy as “poor.” There has been no change at all in Americans’ perceptions of whether the U.S. economy is getting better or getting worse. …
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, on a Thursday visit to Afghanistan, pressured Pakistan to do more to root out the Taliban-linked Haqqani terrorist network from its territory, saying that U.S. officials are “reaching the limits of our patience.”
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … MIDWAY FROM MIDWAY: UNSUNG 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST IMPORTANT BATTLES COMES AS OBAMA TRIES “THE PACIFIC PIVOT.”
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in California, Nevada, and Washington, DC.
At 10:20 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at a private residence in the Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles.
At 11:20 AM Pacific, Obama departs Los Angeles on Air Force One en route to Las Vegas, Nevada.
At 12:20 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Las Vegas.
At 12:50 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks on college affordability at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
At 2 PM Pacific, Obama departs Las Vegas on Air Force One en route Joint Base Andrews.
At 6:10 PM Pacific, Obama lands at Joint Base Andrews, where he boards Marine One.
At 6:25 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
Obama appeared last night at another major LA fundraising dinner, this time at the residence of Glee creator and producer Ryan Murphy in Beverly Hills. There he thanked Murphy and former LA Music Center chairman and top Bill Clinton aide John Emerson for their help in organizing the event, which attracted the likes of actresses Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon and featured a member of the Glee cast filling in on 36 hours notice for ailing singer Pink.
The event raised close to $2 million.
I’ll have more numbers on the fundraising trip as we go forward.
Elsewhere, the news was not as bright.
Afghan officials again complain that NATO forces have killed civilians, with President Hamid Karzai charging today that 18 civilians were killed in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan.
Speaking yesterday in New Delhi, where the veteran California political figure is continuing a big tour of the Asia Pacific region as part of the US geopolitical pivot, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta defended US drone strikes inside Pakistan. In the wake of the killing of Al Qaeda’s second in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi, Panetta made it clear that the drone strikes will continue.
Today Panetta is in Afghanistan. Speaking at a press conference in Kabul, he indicated that US patience with Pakistan on the disrupted supply route and on safe havens for jihadists is at a breaking point.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
President Barack Obama pledged to defend gay rights during an appearance in Beverly Hills, California on Wednesday. Obama also called the moment he signed the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy “as good as it gets.”
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown, who usually skips the president’s appearances in his state, was on hand yesterday when Obama arrived in San Francisco for a pair of fundraisers.
San Francisco Giants legend Willie Mays introduced Obama at a fundraising luncheon in the City by the Bay’s Julia Morgan Ballroom.
Brown was there as well, getting a shout-out from Obama, along with several other officials such as San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom.
Brown was neutral in the 2008 primaries between Obama and Hillary Clinton, while Newsom was a national co-chair of the Clinton campaign.
Brown noted later that victories for public pension reform measures on Tuesday in San Jose and San Diego point up the potency of the issue.
He wants legislative action before his November revenue initiative comes up for its vote.
** MAD MEN: THE ANVIL HAS LANDED.The anvil has landed. A season full of obvious portents of doom has at last produced a death. I’m just not sure how central this fatality is to the story. But it may illustrate a larger point about the need to be able to surf the waves of changing times.
As always, there be some spoilers ahead. Incidentally, you can see all my Mad Men pieces, going back to 2009, here in The Mad Men File.
I have always enjoyed the character of Lane Pryce and think that Jared Harris is a fabulous actor, both on Mad Men and Fringe, as well as in his movie work. He was a terrific Moriarty in Robert Downey, Jr.’s latest Sherlock Holmes epic and I’m looking forward to his Ulysses Grant in Steve Spielberg’s forthcoming Lincoln. In Lane Pryce, the rather old-school and more than slightly fussy British financial manager who is practically the antithesis of Harris’s roustabout movie star father Richard, he has deftly created a portrait of a man who yearns to be free but doesn’t know how to go about it.
And yet. And yet, the character has been something of a third wheel on Mad Men since Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce was formed. His machinations freed the core of the old Sterling Cooper crew from their British corporate overlords, but since then, the show has struggled to provide a strong storyline for Lane Pryce.
So his death, as a result of a chain of circumstances that seems somewhat contrived, doesn’t have the impact that a more highly anticipated (hoped for?) demise would have.
But, and yet again. Despite creator Matthew Weiner’s efforts, the character didn’t pay off in life on the show, yet the death of Lane may point up an extraordinarily important lesson for those in challenging, changing times, which the late 1960s (it’s 1967 on the show) certainly were becoming.
In “Commissions and Fees,” we see Lane Pryce go from the heights to the depths with stunning swiftness, due to his inflexibility and unwillingness to surf waves of change. He is accorded a major honor as a top financial manager by the national advertising association and he is unmasked as an embezzler in rapid succession. Can you say, “ironic?” Anvils.
Anyhow, Don Draper confronts him. The identity thief and deserter under fire from the U.S. Army (that is a very serious crime, which can carry the death penalty) doesn’t like Lane’s explanation for forging his signature on a check — really, Lane should have just asked for help, but was too proud and embarrassed to do so — and forces him to resign.
Which leads to Lane’s suicide. First he tries to kill himself in the beautiful new Jaguar E-Type in the classic British Racing Green that his clueless wife has bought to sacrifice his success, and which won’t start. (A cheap and easy joke on the show’s part, considering how many of those cars are running a half-century later.) Then he hangs himself in his office, leaving behind not a note, but the resignation letter Don had required.
Don is all about reinvention, to a point. He can’t grasp that Lane has not broken free from Old World strictures even as he’s embraced the New World.
But the irony is that this paragon of new starts is himself falling behind the pace of change in the advertising business and in ’60s America. He’s not into the Beatles, he doesn’t really get his smart and spiffy young wife, he may not even be the best advertising mind at his own firm any longer, perhaps because he hasn’t been applying himself.
Don is spurred to self-renewal by Lane’s desperate act. But what he does sounds a little psychotic. He complains that he only wants the biggest companies as clients. (Really, Don?) After getting Roger Sterling to arrange a meeting with Ken Cosgrove’s fairly smarmy father-in-law, a big wheel at Dow Corning — or is it Dow Chemical? — Don blows into the meeting insisting that the corporate giant needs new advertising and he’s just the man to provide it.
Declaring that happiness is just “a moment before you need more happiness,” which sounds like the ethic of the great white shark, which must keep moving constantly forward or else it dies, Don blathers that they can’t be happy with 50 percent market share because 100 percent market share must be the goal. But total dominance, monopoly, is itself the path to stagnation, as AT&T and IBM conclusively demonstrated.
The old Don is back, seeing few limits to possibility even as he rejects the contentment he found for a time with Megan.
But, having just won the account, however it happened — another way to think of it is that SCDP would have won anyway had the car dealer on the advertising committee not practiced sexual blackmail — Don, or someone, doesn’t quite grasp what Jaguar means to his agency.
I see an analogy with the real world example of Chiat/Day and Apple. Like Jaguar, Apple’s Macintosh computers were cool and glamorous, a lucrative niche product not suited to the mass. Just as everyone was not going to want a graphical user interface (or so it was thought), not everyone is going to want a sexy British sports car.
Chiat/Day turned advertising Apple’s products into a sort of art form, with the epic “1984″ ad as only the most famous example. They became a go-to agency as a result.
SCDP’s work for whatever the heck they’ve been selling these last years — floor polish, baked beans, etc. — hasn’t showcased them at all. Nor has it been much of a window into the times, a disappointment of mine with this show. Don had a great shot with Hilton Hotels, but failed to think big and wild enough for his eccentric pal Conrad Hilton.
The fact is, he needs to stop being so damn staid. And that was clear even before the ’60s became “The Sixties.”
On the soap opera level, Don’s callousness has now spurred two people to suicide. First, his own brother; now, the man who made it possible for him to have an agency in the first place.
Incidentally, I haven’t researched this, but something bothers me about the Lane Pryce storyline, well-played though it turned out to be in the end. I thought it was outstandingly presented in this farewell-to-Lane episode. But the conception of it bothers me a bit.
I recall there being some famous British actor tax exiles, i.e., actors in the ’60s and ’70s who got out of the UK’s very high rate of taxation by mostly living and working outside the country. Hmm, who does that sound like?
Lane has lived and worked away from Britain almost exclusively for years. He’s been at Sterling Cooper and then SCDP in New York for at least four years, and may have worked elsewhere abroad for Putnam, Powell, and Lowe before that. After all, they had initially planned to send him off to Bombay, India (now Mumbai), when they brought in the fellow who got his foot chopped off by Lois and the lawn mower.
Is it possible that Mad Men didn’t get this situation right? I don’t know. As I said, I haven’t fully researched it.
But the show certainly appears to have made a mistake about another big part of this storyline.
With regard to the company Don and Roger hit up to make their move into mega-corporate work, the show seems to have gotten confused about what company it’s talking about. Don and company are at last pitching that napalm maker Dow Corning for its advertising business. Except, uh, Dow Corning never made napalm. …
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $85 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $51 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $29 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Afghan officials again complain that NATO forces have killed civilians, today charging that 17 civilians were killed in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan.
** QUICK HITS. San Francisco Giants legend Willie Mays introduced President Barack Obama at a fundraiser in the City by the Bay. … Governor Jerry Brown, who seldom attends Obama fundraisers in his state, was also on hand. … Brown noted that victories for public pension reform measures yesterday in San Jose and San Diego point up the potency of the issue.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MAD MEN: THE ANVIL HAS LANDED and MIDWAY FROM MIDWAY: UNSUNG 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST IMPORTANT BATTLES AS OBAMA TRIES “THE PACIFIC PIVOT.”
** NEW SURVEY: GALLUP SAYS (AGAIN) THAT JOB CREATION IS STEADY. A new Gallup Poll survey indicates that job creation in the US was steady in May, a period for which the US Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a report last Friday which found job growth to be stalling.
The Friday announcement turned what had been a quite good week for President Barack Obama into something of a bad one, with much of the media running wild with single datum analysis and projection, its now familiar and more than faintly hysterical pattern.
Gallup’s U.S. Job Creation Index was at +19 in May, compared with +20 in April and +18 in March, providing a largely steady assessment of the U.S. job creation picture over the period in which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found job creation stalling.
The results are based on interviews with 16,913 U.S. workers conducted from May 1-31 as part of Gallup Daily tracking. Gallup asks employed workers nationwide each day whether their employer is increasing, reducing, or maintaining the size of its workforce — to provide a real-time indicator of the job creation climate. While Gallup’s job creation measure does not capture the precise number of jobs that are being created or eliminated, it is a strong predictor of the direction of both U.S. jobless claims and U.S. unemployment, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The U.S. Job Creation Index score of +19 for May reflects 35% of workers nationwide saying their employers are hiring workers and expanding the size of their workforce, and 16% saying their employers are letting workers go and reducing the size of their workforce. The remaining 49% say their company is neither hiring nor firing or don’t know. These percentages are very close to what workers reported in March and April, reflecting a steady, three-month trend of workers reporting more hiring than firing compared with what Gallup found in prior months since the global economic collapse. …
Speaking today in New Delhi, where the veteran California political figure is continuing a big tour of the Asia Pacific region as part of the US geopolitical pivot, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta defended US drone strikes inside Pakistan. In the wake of the killing of Al Qaeda’s second in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi, Panetta made it clear that the drone strikes will continue.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MAD MEN: THE ANVIL HAS LANDED and MIDWAY FROM MIDWAY: THE UNSUNG 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST IMPORTANT BATTLES COMES AS OBAMA TRIES TO EXECUTE “THE PACIFIC PIVOT.”
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and California.
Obama received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He then left the White House early this morning to fly to San Francisco on Air Force One.
At 11:20 AM Pacific, Obama arrives in San Francisco, California.
At 12:20 PM Pacific, Obama attends a campaign event at Landmark Tower in San Francisco.
At 2:15 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco.
At 3:15 PM Pacific, Obama departs San Francisco on Air Force One en route to Los Angeles.
At 4:20 PM Pacific, Obama arrives in Los Angeles.
At 7:15 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
At 8:55 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at the residence of Glee creator and producer Ryan Murphy in Beverly Hills.
Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, embattled due to his efforts to bust the public employee unions in the Badger State, survived yesterday’s recall election with 53% of the vote.
Obama did not get involved in the recall effort.
>Exit poll data from the hard-fought race to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker gives President Barack Obama a significant edge, 51-45, over Mitt Romney in the Badger State, a key swing state in the November election.
Only 17% of Wisconsin voters say that their personal financial situations have improved over the past two years, with 44% saying it’s the same and 38% saying it’s worse. But they don’t seem to blame Obama, giving him a clear edge over Romney on the economy, 45-37.
Embattled Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker defeated a Democratic attempt to recall him last night with 53% of the vote. Democrats appear to have a slight edge in the state Senate.
Obama also has a big edge on the question of who would most help the middle class, 48-35 over Romney.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** JERRY BROWN FOR PRESIDENT + 20.It was the morning after the 1992 California primary and the knocking on the bedroom door was insistent. Feeling a little groggy after a very late election night, I was slow to respond. But that didn’t stop Jerry Brown. The door opened, and he entered.
Brown had just run in the last presidential primary of his career. (Never say never, I know, but I’m not expecting another Brown presidential run, just a fourth gubernatorial term.) He said that I’d just had a phone call, from someone whose name I’m not sure I learned. Though we’d talked at his L.A. headquarters the night before, he clearly wanted to talk more and the fact that both of us were staying at his sister Kathleen’s home in the Hollywood Hills enabled that to happen.
His trademark irrepressibility was very much in evidence.
Starting from way back in the pack, the then former California governor, who had only re-entered politics a few years earlier after practicing with an L.A. law firm, studying Zen Buddhism in Kyoto, and working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, had emerged into a feisty second place behind then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. He’d run a long and grueling campaign, managed by my old friend Jodie Evans, a campaign frequently marked by sharp exchanges with the hardball Clinton crew, in a venture focused on the underside of politics and the need for reform. The Internet wasn’t a mass medium yet (I wouldn’t go on it, using a text-based browser, till the following year), but Brown, an early Internet user, fueled his campaign via an 800 number and a self-imposed contribution limit of $100.
As seen in this clip from the C-SPAN archives, I introduced Brown the weekend before his last presidential primary at the American Community Summit at Sony Pictures Studios in L.A. Brown gave a rather, well, downbeat presentation on the crisis of the cities.
But the morning after the the last primary of the race, his not infrequently dour message was replaced with an upbeat attitude.
Brown was going on to the Democratic national convention in New York City, looking to stay newsworthy and push his ideas, most of which you are hearing today, while not doing too much damage to Clinton. Not that he was fond of Clinton, but he was decidedly less fond of then President George Bush.
Brown had already begun pulling his punches. In the California primary, he decided not to run TV ads, though he had the money, and throttled back on his criticism of Clinton. The future president might well have won anyway, as he had a good head of steam and a strong campaign directed by my old Gary Hart colleague John Emerson, but Brown’s behavior certainly didn’t hurt. He just wanted to make sure he won a lot more delegates, which he did with a close second. He ended up with around 600 convention delegates, more than enough to raise a ruckus.
Of course, he might have done far better had he not sabotaged his lead in the run-up to the New York primary by announcing that he would make Jesse Jackson his running mate, something which decidedly did not fly with Jewish voters and many moderates.
Still, the Clinton camp was wary, and I reported to Brown that Warren Beatty, an old friend from the Gary Hart days and an old Brown backer who had been supportive of his 1992 candidacy but also looked favorably on Clinton, would be calling him at his San Francisco home, a classic old converted Victorian firehouse, to talk party comity.
Brown, a classic political animal — some of the most visionary conversations I’ve ever had and some of the most hardball conversations (sometimes in the same conversation) I’ve ever had have been with him — knew this race was over but was fascinated with what lay ahead.
The convention was in July, but before that was the first Earth Summit, in Rio, where Brown went about a week later. It was there that the United Nations climate change convention was established, which paved the way for the Kyoto Protocol five years later.
Brown was in his wheelhouse in Rio on renewable energy and conservation, something which hadn’t been of much interest to Clinton. Now, of course, Clinton is all over the climate issue.
And, of course, the same sort of issues remain. (There’s another Earth summit this month in Rio but, while Brown’s predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger is going, Brown won’t make it this time.)
For California’s chronic budget crisis remains, too. Much of it has been solved, but much remains. …
Jerry Brown spoke at the Democratic National Convention in New York City, winding up his runner-up campaign for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
But he is expected to be on hand when Obama arrives in San Francisco for a pair of fundraisers.
A very quiet California primary finished up today, with a once or twice too often to the well tobacco tax initiative trying to hang on in the face of a tobacco industry onslaught and a moderate revision of term limits probably heading for victory. It appears to have fallen short, 49-51, in the face of a $50 million advertising onslaught from the tobacco industry.
The tobacco tax proposal is so attenuated from the state’s chronic budget crisis — it would have spent more money on cancer research, while making cigarettes that much more expensive for low-income folks — that I simply didn’t follow it closely. I doubt that many people thought it was a needed policy.
But term limits revision passed easily, 61-39, with the undecided breaking heavily in its favor.
The term limits revision could restore greater functionality to the legislature by ending the crazy musical chairs that term limits have engendered, as well as ending the preposterous situation in which new members are not infrequently chairs of committees.
The primary, incidentally, set a new record for low turnout.
Senator Dianne Feinstein easily lapped the field with 49.5% of the vote. The endorsed Republican candidate, Elizabeth Emken trailed in the multi-candidate field with 12.5% of the vote.
The two will square off, as it were, in November.
The new open primary law championed by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and supported by Brown, showed off more of its dynamics yesterday, with a few hot local races on tap.
One result already is fewer Republican candidates signing the no-tax pledge.
But Republican rising star-turned-independent Nathan Fletcher didn’t do so well in the San Diego mayor’s race.
He finished third, with 24% of the vote. He had climbed into a tie for first after switching registration. But he was hammered as an opportunist for not doing it from the beginning.
She has partnered closely with the governor in his political career as he moved on from mayor of Oakland to California attorney general and then returned to the governorship.
Amusingly, Morrison asks if Brown is a “Luddite,” which seemed to take Gust aback. Not surprisingly, as Brown is the first politician I know who started using e-mail, back when most people didn’t know what it was.
Still, it gives a better sense of Anne Gust Brown, whom I first met in the early ’90s when she was seeing Brown. The pair married in 2005.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
Crowds gathered across the world yesterday to watch one of the rarest astronomical events as the planet Venus passed between the Sun and the Earth. If you missed it, too bad because it won’t happen again until 2117.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $85 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $51 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $29 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
A U.S. official says that the second in command of Al Qaeda, Abu Yahya al-Libi was killed in an American drone strike on a home in Pakistan, the latest in a series of commanders killed in the aerial campaign following Osama bin Laden’s death.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … JERRY BROWN FOR PRESIDENT + 20, MAD MEN: THE ANVIL HAS LANDED and MIDWAY FROM MIDWAY: THE UNSUNG 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST IMPORTANT BATTLES COMES AS OBAMA TRIES TO EXECUTE “THE PACIFIC PIVOT.”
** QUICK HITS.>Exit poll data from the hard-fought race to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker gives President Barack Obama a significant edge, 51-45, over Mitt Romney in the Badger State, a key swing state in the November election. … Only 17% of Wisconsin voters say that their personal financial situations have improved over the past two years, with 44% saying it’s the same and 38% saying it’s worse. But they don’t seem to blame Obama, giving him a clear edge over Romney on the economy, 45-37. … Obama also has a big edge on the question of who would most help the middle class, 48-35 over Romney.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the daily intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama then met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
Obama has no scheduled public events on this election day in a number of states around the country.
On Wednesday, Obama will travel to San Francisco and Los Angeles to attend fundraisers. Obama will spend the night in Los Angeles.
I’ll have a lot more on that.
On Thursday, Obama will travel to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas for an official event on the economy. Obama will return to Washington, DC in the evening.
On Friday, Obama will welcome President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines to the White House for a bilateral meeting. The Philippines is a long-standing key ally of the US, and with Obama’s geostrategic shift to the Asia-Pacific region, close coordination with the island republic is very important.
Also on Friday, Obama will welcome the Super Bowl XLVI Champion New York Giants to the White House to honor the team for its Super Bowl victory.
Over the weekend, at the annual Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore on security policy in the Pacific Basin, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta laid out more on the new US doctrine which Obama first articulated during his trip to the Asia Pacific region late last year, and which Panetta himself addressed last week during his commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
Panetta said that the US Navy will shift most of its ships to the region in coming years, and that six of the fleet’s 10 aircraft carriers and their supporting strike groups will be based and on patrol in the Pacific.
He stressed that the US seeks cooperation with China and not confrontation. But having more USN firepower in the region will backstop Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines, all of which on the South China Sea but which are having serious problems with China, which attempts to claim nearly all of it.
Panetta went on to the Philippines, and to Vietnam — an historic visit for a US defense secretary — where he visited the massive US-built base at Cam Ranh Bay and requested its use by the Navy.
Then he went to India for two days of talks today and on Wednesday.
The Obama Administration is trying to make India a much closer ally, which would help tremendously in providing a counter-weight to China.
But India has a very long history of non-alignment.
Panetta is also trying to get more Indian help in Afghanistan, where its efforts to date have focused on economic development and humanitarian aid.
But Panetta’s push for help from India may make the bad situation with Pakistan even worse.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
Voter turnout in California will likely set a record low 35 percent for a presidential primary, according to a new Field Poll released Tuesday. The state’s decision to push back its election has made the primary an academic exercise for voters.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
A very quiet California primary finishes up today, with a once or twice too often to the well tobacco tax initiative trying to hang on in the face of a tobacco industry onslaught and a moderate revision of term limits probably heading for victory.
The tobacco tax proposal is so attenuated from the state’s chronic budget crisis that I simply haven’t followed it closely.
The term limits revision could restore greater functionality to the legislature by ending the crazy musical chairs.
The new open primary law championed by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and supported by Brown, shows off more of its dynamics today, with a few hot local races on tap.
One result already is fewer Republican candidates signing the no-tax pledge.
We’ll also see how Republican rising star-turned-independent Nathan Fletcher does in the San Diego mayor’s race.
He’s fighting to get into the run-off.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeal denied a motion by the proponents of the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban to have a majority of the court determine whether to uphold the decision by a 9th Circuit panel of judges to uphold the federal district court ruling throwing out the 2008 initiative.
Brown opposed Prop 8, and as attorney general, he and then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger decided not to have the state intervene to protect it in court, as is usually done with initiatives.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
Over the weekend, The Avengers, starring Jerry Brown friend Robert Downey, Jr. and some other folks, became the third biggest movie of all-time at the domestic and global box offices, passing The Dark Knight for the former honor and the final Harry Potter film for the latter. Director James Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic are still first and second. The Avengers will not catch either of those films at either the domestic or global box offices.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil Is trading around $84 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $50 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $30 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
Longtime Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison Saturday for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising that forced him from power last year. His last chief of staff, retired Air Force General Ahmed Shafiq is trying to hold off Muslim Brotherhoold leader and USC alum Dr. Mohamed Morsi in the mid-June run-off.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … JERRY BROWN FOR PRESIDENT + 20, MAD MEN: “COMMISSIONS AND FEES,” and FOR OBAMA, MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS AFTER IRAN AND NATO TALKS.
** OBAMA THIS WEEKEND. President Barack Obama is in Illinois, Maryland, and Washington, DC.
On Saturday, Obama departed Chicago, where he spent the night at his own home, flying on Air Force One en route Joint Base Andrews.
At 11:45 AM Pacific, Obama lands at Joint Base Andrews, where he boards Marine One.
At 11:50 AM Pacific, Obama departs Joint Base Andrews on Marine One en route to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland.
On Sunday morning, Obama returns to the White House.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama hosts a reception for the Ford’s Theatre at the White House.
Here’s what Obama’s week ahead looks like.
As usual, there is plenty of flexibility built into his public schedule for emerging events.
And as usual, it does not reflect his geopolitical crisis management.
And aside from an event in Nevada, where I’m sure he’ll talk about the economy, it doesn’t reflect the sudden hysteria in media circles about the economy, based on a jobs report at the end of the week, unexpectedly showing lower than expected job growth.
Obama expects to have a big fundraising week with stops in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. I’m told that Silicon Valley is in for several million more.
Mitt Romney’s campaign has been cagy about his take from Silicon Valley at one of the biggest mansions in the country.
2010 Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman, who recently announced that she is firing nearly 30,000 workers as Hewlett Packard’s CEO, played leading role in organizing Romney’s effort.
On Monday, Obama will travel to New York City where he will attend fundraisers before returning to Washington, DC at night.
On Tuesday, Obama will hold meetings at the White House.
On Wednesday, Obama will travel to San Francisco and Los Angeles to attend fundraisers. Obama will spend the night in Los Angeles.
On Thursday, Obama will travel to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas for an official event on the economy. Obama will return to Washington, DC in the evening.
On Friday, Obama will welcome President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines to the White House for a bilateral meeting. The Philippines is a long-standing key ally of the US, and with Obama’s geostrategic shift to the Asia-Pacific region, close coordination with the island republic is very important.
Also on Friday, Obama will welcome the Super Bowl XLVI Champion New York Giants to the White House to honor the team for its Super Bowl victory.
In his weekly video/radio address, President Obama from a Honeywell manufacturing facility in Minnesota about his proposal to make it easier for companies to hire returning service members for jobs that utilize their skills and grow the economy.
At the annual Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore on security policy in the Pacific Basin, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta laid out more on the new US doctrine which Obama first articulated during his trip to the Asia Pacific region late last year, and which Panetta himself addressed a few days ago during his commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
Panetta said that the US Navy will shift most of its ships to the region in coming years, and that six of the fleet’s 10 aircraft carriers and their supporting strike groups will be based and on patrol in the Pacific.
He stressed that the US seeks cooperation with China and not confrontation. But having more USN firepower in the region will backstop Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines, all of which on the South China Sea but which are having serious problems with China, which attempts to claim nearly all of it.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Iraq, AfPak, and North Korea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time, and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events.
In its pre-primary report, the California Secretary of State’s office has revealed the composition of the California electorate: 43.4% Democrat, 30.2% Republican, 21.3% independent.
As he prepares to move the first stage of the high-speed rail program through the state legislature, Brown and his administration are readying legislation to make sure that there are no delays in construction.
Brown and company are devising ways to limit and streamline environmental challenges to the bullet train.
Instead of being able to hold up the high-speed rail project on minor, often procedural grounds, as not infrequently happens, opponents would have to demonstrate major substantive harm to a species or to the physical environment.
The Madera County Farm Bureau is trying to use the California Environmental Quality Act — which was signed into law in 1970 by then Governor Ronald Reagan — to block the project on a procedural basis.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
This weekend, The Avengers, starring Jerry Brown friend Robert Downey, Jr. and some other folks, will become the third biggest movie of all-time at the domestic and global box offices, passing The Dark Knight for the former honor and the final Harry Potter film for the latter. Director James Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic are still first and second.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil closed on Friday at $83.23 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $49 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $31 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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