Demonstrations against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s power grab continued today in various parts of Egypt. Much larger scale demonstrations are reportedly planned for Tuesday.
** QUICK HITS. New Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi appears to be reaching a compromise with the country’s judges over his recent decree raising his decisions above judicial review for the next six months. He appears to be pulling back from that in favor of guarantees that the country’s constituent assembly will be allowed to finish its work without being dissolved by judicial order, as the the country’s first democratically-elected parliament was dissolved by the supreme court. … But big demonstrations are still on tap for Tuesday. … UN Ambassador Susan Rice, whose erroneous statements about the Benghazi disaster have led to conservative Republicans claiming her mistake — which she attributes to intelligence community talking points which evidently were watered down — amounted to a latter-day Watergate, which it is not, will meet on Tuesday with Senator John McCain and other critics. Rice is a leading contender for secretary of state. … At some point, the Benghazi inquiry will focus on how the disaster came to take place and how such can be avoided in the future. … Meanwhile, the US seems poised to vote against Palestine becoming achieving UN non-member observer state status, which is likely to occur nonetheless at the end of the week in a vote of the UN General Assembly. The US has no veto power over this move. … Despite ample signs that Republicans are at last beginning to back away from the Grover Norquist anti-tax pledge, there is no puff of white smoke emanating from the fiscal cliff talks.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … “JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS OUT…”: OBAMA PUSHES THE GEOPOLITICAL PIVOT AMIDST ANCIENT ENMITIES.
** NEW SURVEY: SATISFACTION AT STABLE LEVELS AFTER RISING EARLIER IN THE YEAR. A pre-Thanksgiving Gallup Poll survey indicates that the rise in satisfaction of recent months across the US has stabilized a little at a little over 30%.
Concern about the economy is blocking any further rise.
Democrats are optimistic and satisfied, by a 51-46 margin while Republicans, at only 9% (with 91% dissatisfied!), weigh down the overall.
Americans’ satisfaction has stabilized, with 31% saying they are satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. Satisfaction levels have been at or above 30% since September, after being below that mark for three years beginning in late August/early September 2009. …
Though Americans remain much more dissatisfied than satisfied with the state of the nation, their satisfaction levels have been holding at a slightly higher level during the past three months. Certainly, government efforts to avoid the “fiscal cliff” could have a marked impact on satisfaction going forward.
Satisfaction ranged between 11% and 14% last August-November, spanning the time the government agreed to raise the federal debt limit and the time the federal budget deficit “supercommittee” failed to reach agreement on debt reduction measures, leading to the scheduling of the fiscal cliff spending cuts and tax increases for Jan. 1, 2013.
The Kyoto Protocol on climate change is set to expire in just a few weeks. Its replacement will be debated in UN climate talks in Qatar – but expectations are low, and few observers believe a new deal will be struck in Doha. In any event, Kyoto has failed.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … “JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS OUT…”: OBAMA PUSHES THE GEOPOLITICAL PIVOT AMIDST ANCIENT ENMITIES.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK.
While neither President Barack Obama nor Governor Jerry Brown have extensive public schedules on tap this week back from Thanksgiving, the week ahead does promise to be quite interesting.
The truce between Israel and Hamas is holding. At this point, it appears that some 160 Palestinians were killed in the rocket and aerial fighting over Gaza to only six Israelis. Israeli casualties, of course, were dramatically diminished by the success of the Iron Dome anti-missile system, developed by the Israelis and funded by the Obama Administration. Obama has announced that the US will help Israel expand and further improve its already formidable anti-missile capabilities.
Delegations from Hamas and Israel are in Cairo, where they are beginning work today to further flesh out the ceasefire agreement.
Protests against new Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s very expansive decree of presidential power have continued, but are not large. Morsi said again on Sunday that his moves are temporary. Meanwhile, Egyptian judges threaten a judicial strike in protest of his reversal of supreme court decisions to shut down the democratically-elected national parliament and stop the constitutional assembly from continuing its work on developing a new constitution.
Morsi is initiating a dialogue with his critics, and has met with representatives of the judicial association.
Critics and supporters of Morsi promise mass demonstrations on Tuesday. Morsi’s critics, who comprise members of the ancien regime of Mubarak as well as more secular liberals have formed a National Salvation League. It will be interesting to see what they can do.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the former Labor prime minister, chief of the IDF general staff, and head of Israeli special operations forces, surprised many by announcing today that he is leaving politics. Israel has a contentious national election on January 22nd, Barak alienated many of his old supporters on the left by being part of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition government, and he recently parted ways with Netanyahu, his old army subordinate, on the latter’s emphasis on a unilateral strike against Iran. Barak’s new Independence Party doesn’t poll well.
Barak has been, along with President Shimon Peres, a principal interlocutor between the current Israel government and the Obama Administration. But I suspect his political story has not ended.
Obama and Barak were already working to further the Iron Dome successor anti-missile system. Iron Dome, funded by the Obama Administration, had great success in the recent conflict with Hamas.
Doha, capital of natural gas and oil power Qatar, hosts the latest UN global climate change summit this week. Expectations are not high. The Kyoto Protocol, which has essentially failed to reverse greenhouse gas emissions as extreme weather events proliferate, expires soon.
Which makes this just achieved historic first all the more telling and ironic. The first Arctic Sea crossing this late in the year by a full-scale ship has just been achieved. By a liquefied natural gas tanker. The burning of fossil fuels is what made it possible.
China announced Sunday that it has finally succeeded in landing a jet fighter on its first ever aircraft carrier. The commissioning of the country’s first carrier in September was part of the PRC’s drive to expand its power projection capabilities as it stakes extraordinarily expansive claims to virtually the entire South China Sea.
The Liaoning, however, is many generations behind US Navy capability, and Chinese pilots are at the very beginning of learning carrier air operations.
Back at home, several prominent Republican politicians, including Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, New York Congressman Peter King, and Georgia Senator Saxby are among the latest to say they will no longer honor conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist’s notorious anti-tax pledge.
It’s not clear that conservative Republicans still have the ability to filibuster on this issue in the U.S. Senate.
Here’s what Obama’s schedule looks like for the following week. We’re definitely out of the campaign woods now. It has plenty of flexibility built in for potential crisis management, work on the fiscal cliff, and for follow-up to his Asia-Pacific pivot trip and the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.
On Monday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House.
On Tuesday, Obama will host President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico at the White House. They will discuss a broad range of bilateral, regional and global issues during their Oval Office meeting.
On Wednesday, Obama will hold a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room.
On Thursday, Obama will meet with the 2012 Nobel Prize winners in the Oval Office.
The White House hasn’t shared anything about Obama’s Friday schedule.
Back in California politics, Governor Jerry Brown is his customary self on publicly revealing his schedule for the week ahead. Which is to say, not at all.
You didn’t expect his achieving one of the greatest successes in California political history to change that, did you?
The somewhat transformed state legislature is preparing to come back briefly next month. Both houses now have 2/3 Democratic majorities. There are 29 Democrats to 11 Republicans in the state Senate, which is the house Brown had had the most difficulty gaining Republican votes from. And there are 54 Democrats to 26 Republicans in the state Assembly.
Fresh off the triumph of his Prop 30 revenue initiative, Brown appears to be succeeding in tamping down potential over-reaching among Democratic legislators.
But the night is young.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday abruptly announced he was quitting politics and will not run in January’s general elections. Barak has been the leading Israeli liaison to the Obama Administration.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … “JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS OUT…”: OBAMA PUSHES THE GEOPOLITICAL PIVOT AMIDST ANCIENT ENMITIES.
** 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.
He has no scheduled public events.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Persian/Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time. The time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen 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.
Click here for my compendium of articles laying out the re-emergence of Jerry Brown as governor of California.
Click here for my compendium of articles providing a narrative of his governorship.
** JERRY BROWN RIDES A WAVE WITH NATIONAL IMPLICATIONS. … From my November 20th essay.
** SKYFALL IN PERSPECTIVE. … From my November 15th essay.
** SUSAN RICE, MCCAIN, OBAMA AND THE NEXT SECRETARY OF STATE. … From my November 14th column.
** VETERANS DAY IN A STILL DEEPLY FRACTURED AMERICA.…From my November 12th column.
** HOW JERRY BROWN PULLED OFF THE BIG PROP 30 WIN. … From my November 8th essay.
** MOMENTS: THE LIGHT DAWNS ON…FOX NEWS. … From my November 7th essay.
** LOOKING FORWARD: BENGHAZI BLUES, CLIMATE WAKE-UP CALLS, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF MAPS. … From my November 5th essay.
** DON’T LOOK NOW, BUT … CAN JERRY BROWN ACTUALLY PULL OFF A PROP 30 WIN? … From my November 2nd column.
** TERM 2: OBAMA ON THE VERGE. … From my November 1st essay.
** FROM GOVERNATOR TO MOONBEAM. … From my January 3rd, 2011 feature.
** 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 $88 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $54 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 $26 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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| Comments (37) |
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the UN climate summit.
Good news video on Minister Barak’s retirement.
Hi there, You’ve performed an excellent job. I’ll definitely digg it and personally suggest to my friends. I’m sure they will be benefited from this website.
This will be an interesting week. Egypt changing, Israel changing a little, Republicans changing, nothing changing on the climate crisis.
The world is in big trouble…
Jonas says:
November 26, 2012 at 10:46 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the UN climate summit.
Who do we talk to now??
Jonas says:
November 26, 2012 at 10:49 am
Good news video on Minister Barak’s retirement.
Hahahah!!!
BB:Back in California politics, Governor Jerry Brown is his customary self on publicly revealing his schedule for the week ahead. Which is to say, not at all.
You didn’t expect his achieving one of the greatest successes in California political history to change that, did you?
great news!!
BB:Back at home, several prominent Republican politicians, including Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, New York Congressman Peter King, and Georgia Senator Saxby are among the latest to say they will no longer honor conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist’s notorious anti-tax pledge.
It’s not clear that conservative Republicans still have the ability to filibuster on this issue in the U.S. Senate.
More Syria Turkey Iran crisis video today?
I hope not.
Old dog new tricks?
Capitol Boy says:
November 26, 2012 at 11:53 am
Hahahah!!!
BB:Back in California politics, Governor Jerry Brown is his customary self on publicly revealing his schedule for the week ahead. Which is to say, not at all.
You didn’t expect his achieving one of the greatest successes in California political history to change that, did you?
True.
Requiem says:
November 26, 2012 at 11:30 am
This will be an interesting week. Egypt changing, Israel changing a little, Republicans changing, nothing changing on the climate crisis.
Him, probably…
Capitol Boy says:
November 26, 2012 at 11:52 am
Who do we talk to now??
Jonas says:
November 26, 2012 at 10:49 am
Good news video on Minister Barak’s retirement.
Great to be back from Thanksgiving? I don’t think so.
That sounds reasonable.
** QUICK HITS. New Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi appears to be reaching a compromise with the country’s judges over his recent decree raising his decisions above judicial review for the next six months. He appears to be pulling back from that in favor of guarantees that the country’s constituent assembly will be allowed to finish its work without being dissolved by judicial order, as the the country’s first democratically-elected parliament was dissolved by the supreme court. …
McCain went crazy on Susan Rice…
… UN Ambassador Susan Rice, whose erroneous statements about the Benghazi disaster have led to conservative Republicans claiming her mistake — which she attributes to intelligence community talking points which evidently were watered down — amounted to a latter-day Watergate, which it is not, will meet on Tuesday with Senator John McCain and other critics. Rice is a leading contender for secretary of state. …
I’m glad we can’t veto this.
… Meanwhile, the US seems poised to vote against Palestine becoming achieving UN non-member observer state status, which is likely to occur nonetheless at the end of the week in a vote of the UN General Assembly. The US has no veto power over this move. …
[...] recently parted ways with Netanyahu on the latter's … … Originally posted here: New West Notes » Monday Morning Quarterback, and more ← The New Politics of Discrimination | the Blog on Obama: White [...]
Demonstrations against President Morsy are not large.
We will see how big they turn out to be.
Egypt crisis video today?
Indeed.
Big. But not super-big.
>
sergei says:
November 27, 2012 at 5:28 am (Edit)
Demonstrations against President Morsy are not large.
axel white says:
November 27, 2012 at 7:02 am (Edit)
We will see how big they turn out to be.
The ratinales are diminishing, especially with the settlement policy.
> Capitol Boy says:
November 26, 2012 at 5:09 pm (Edit)
I’m glad we can’t veto this.
… Meanwhile, the US seems poised to vote against Palestine becoming achieving UN non-member observer state status, which is likely to occur nonetheless at the end of the week in a vote of the UN General Assembly. The US has no veto power over this move. …
If actually so.
> Capitol Boy says:
November 26, 2012 at 5:07 pm (Edit)
That sounds reasonable.
** QUICK HITS. New Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi appears to be reaching a compromise with the country’s judges over his recent decree raising his decisions above judicial review for the next six months. He appears to be pulling back from that in favor of guarantees that the country’s constituent assembly will be allowed to finish its work without being dissolved by judicial order, as the the country’s first democratically-elected parliament was dissolved by the supreme court. …
I understand.
>
Cooper Hawks says:
November 26, 2012 at 4:13 pm (Edit)
Great to be back from Thanksgiving? I don’t think so.
That may just be the case, after all.
> Jack Aubrey says:
November 26, 2012 at 3:12 pm (Edit)
Him, probably…
Capitol Boy says:
November 26, 2012 at 11:52 am
Who do we talk to now??
Jonas says:
November 26, 2012 at 10:49 am
Good news video on Minister Barak’s retirement.
Well, one and a half out of two …
> Jack Aubrey says:
November 26, 2012 at 2:23 pm (Edit)
Old dog new tricks?
Capitol Boy says:
November 26, 2012 at 11:53 am
Hahahah!!!
BB:Back in California politics, Governor Jerry Brown is his customary self on publicly revealing his schedule for the week ahead. Which is to say, not at all.
You didn’t expect his achieving one of the greatest successes in California political history to change that, did you?
Not hot enough, unfortunately for the world.
>
Jonas says:
November 26, 2012 at 12:49 pm (Edit)
More Syria Turkey Iran crisis video today?
Jack Aubrey says:
November 26, 2012 at 2:22 pm (Edit)
I hope not.
Perhaps so.
> Capitol Boy says:
November 26, 2012 at 11:54 am (Edit)
great news!!
BB:Back at home, several prominent Republican politicians, including Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, New York Congressman Peter King, and Georgia Senator Saxby are among the latest to say they will no longer honor conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist’s notorious anti-tax pledge.
It’s not clear that conservative Republicans still have the ability to filibuster on this issue in the U.S. Senate.
Some things don’t change.
> Capitol Boy says:
November 26, 2012 at 11:53 am (Edit)
Hahahah!!!
BB:Back in California politics, Governor Jerry Brown is his customary self on publicly revealing his schedule for the week ahead. Which is to say, not at all.
You didn’t expect his achieving one of the greatest successes in California political history to change that, did you?
Unclear.
> Capitol Boy says:
November 26, 2012 at 11:52 am (Edit)
Who do we talk to now??
Jonas says:
November 26, 2012 at 10:49 am
Good news video on Minister Barak’s retirement.
Indeed.
> Capitol Boy says:
November 26, 2012 at 11:49 am (Edit)
The world is in big trouble…
Jonas says:
November 26, 2012 at 10:46 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the UN climate summit.
Don’t forget Benghzi and the fiscal cliff.
> Requiem says:
November 26, 2012 at 11:30 am (Edit)
This will be an interesting week. Egypt changing, Israel changing a little, Republicans changing, nothing changing on the climate crisis.
Thanks, I appreciate it.
> Martha says:
November 26, 2012 at 10:58 am (Edit)
Hi there, You’ve performed an excellent job. I’ll definitely digg it and personally suggest to my friends. I’m sure they will be benefited from this website.
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