While the country struggles to come to grips with the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon, the geopolitical pivot to the Asia-Pacific region continues. The guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon arrived in the Vietnamese port of Da Nang, thoughtfully developed by the US during the Vietnam War build-up, for an annual visit on Sunday. Regular visits by US ships for emerging collaboration with Vietnamese units confirm the US military presence in the South China Sea. USS Chung-Hoon, incidentally, is named after the first Asian-American flag officer in the US Navy, the late Rear Admiral Gordon Paiʻea Chung-Hoon. He was a Hawaiian who won the Navy Cross and Silver Star fighting in the Pacific in World War II.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama has received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events.
New Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has begun a week-long trip to the Middle East.
While there, he will visit Israel as well as key Arab allies in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Egypt, where the US is working on shoring up relations with the new Muslim Brotherhood government headed by University of Southern California alum President Mohamed Morsi.
Hagel may finalize a big US weapons deal with the UAE and Saudis while on this trip.
The $10 billion deal is aimed at further countering the rise to regional power of Iran in the power vacuum created by the Iraq War.
Meanwhile, the London Marathon came off today without a hitch.
And another day has passed without a North Korean missile launch.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – SUNDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
With a month to go in LA’s rather sleepy mayoral race, Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti, who ran narrowly ahead in the primary, has opened up a 10-point lead over the better funded LA City Controller Wendy Greueul in a new USC Price School of Public Policy/Los Angeles Times poll.
Brown is officially neutral in the race.
Democrat Garcetti has a 50% to 40% lead over fellow Democrat Greuel, a former DreamWorks executive who enjoys the active backing of former President Bill Clinton. Greuel has garnered heavy backing from public employee unions.
The poll suggests that this may be backfiring with LA’s heavily Democratic electorate.
Garcetti is benefiting from major edges with Latino voters and younger voters. He is even leading Greuel among women voters.
While Greuel has picked up big name endorsements, the losing candidates in the primary, including Republican Kevin James, who ran a distant third, all support Garcetti, the former LA City Council president.
In his weekend video/radio address, President Barack Obama discusses the Boston Marathon terrorist attack.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama has received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events.
Obama has no scheduled public events all weekend, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see him surface again on the Boston Marathon attack. Next week is another week mostly spent in Washington, though he will journey to Dallas, Texas for the dedication ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
He also meets with two key Arab allies, the leaders of Qatar and Jordan.
Obama spoke yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, thanking him for unspecified Russian assistance in dealing with the Boston bombings. The two suspects of course were part of the Chechen and Russian expatriate communities in the US. The older brother went back to Russia for a half-year, leading to contact between Russian and US intelligence officials.
Putin himself rose to power in Russia by very aggressively putting down the Chechen uprising inside the Russian Federation. By some estimates, 200,000 Chechens were killed in the process.
Chechen terrorism in Moscow and elsewhere has been a result. But this has actually played into the hands of Putin, the Cold War KGB colonel and Yeltsin era FSB chief. It’s provided the rationale for extensive security measures, not to mention a supply of scapegoats.
Clearly there is a lot more to learn about all this.
One thing we’ve already learned is that ignorance is rampant in America.
“As many I was deeply shocked by the tragedy that occurred in Boston earlier this month. It was a stark reminder of the fact that any of us could be a victim of senseless violence anywhere at any moment.
“As more information on the origin of the alleged perpetrators is coming to light, I am concerned to note in the social media a most unfortunate misunderstanding in this respect. The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities – the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation.
“As the President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman noted in his message to President Obama, the Czech Republic is an active and reliable partner of the United States in the fight against terrorism. We are determined to stand side by side with our allies in this respect, there is no doubt about that.”
Petr Gandalovič
Ambassador of the Czech Republic
Acting under the public safety exception, which allows investigators to get at potentially imminent threats, the Justice Department has not yet Mirandized the captured suspect. But it’s not known whether he’s been questioned to any degree. He was seriously wounded over the course of a couple of gun battles.
Since he is an American citizen, he is not being treated as an enemy combatant. Naturally, this will become a political football.
In more heartening news, yet another day has passed without a North Korean missile launch.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
Governor Jerry Brown’s China trade and investment mission ended at the right time. A powerful earthquake jolted China’s Sichuan province Saturday, leaving at least 56 dead and more than 600 injured and prompting state media to warn of higher casualty figures to come.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – SATURDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
Brown got good news Friday morning, decidedly lost in the shuffle, with California’s unemployment rate dropping again, to 9.4% in March from 9.6% the previous month.
Longtime California economic expert Steve Levy had this assessment: “The California economy continued to outpace the nation in recent job growth posting a gain of 25,500 jobs in March following a revised increase of 37,400 jobs in February. For the past 12 months job levels in the state have risen by 2.0% compared to the national increase of 1.4%.
“These gains are slowly reducing the state’s still high unemployment rate to 9.4%, the lowest since December 2008. California now ranks third highest tied with Mississippi and below Nevada and Illinois.
“While the state and national economic recovery remains below what we all hope for, there is no question now that California is emerging again as an economic growth leader led by traditional strengths in technology, trade, tourism, agriculture and the application of creativity to the design of goods and services in demand worldwide.
“The state’s gains included increases in construction (+3,800) as the sector continues to rebound on the strength of an improved housing market and transportation infrastructure spending. The construction sector has the potential to make this a very strong year for the California economy if national and world events do not prevent this.
“The largest gains were in professional and business services (+15,800), leisure and hospitality (+7,600) and the Information sector (+11,700) led by an increase in motion picture jobs.
“The big story at the regional level is the strong gain in jobs levels in Southern California led by Los Angeles County with the month to month gains in motion picture production and San Diego County.”
Security has been stepped up across Iraq as voting begins in the first elections since US troops pulled out in late 2011. It has already been a bloody campaign. At least 13 candidates vying for 378 parliamentary seats in the 12 provinces holding elections have been killed.
** 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.
** 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 $88.01 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
What lies ahead for the just captured surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon terrorist attack? He is an American citizen, naturalized just last year. On September 11th.
** END OF DAY: BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT ALIVE AND IN CUSTODY, A VERY GOOD RESULT, BUT … A good result. And yes, other political things happened today, but they were, in comparison, small beer. (As they not infrequently are.)
As we all know now, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, though wounded, was taken alive and will receive medical treatment. It was critically important that this happen, because this episode remains pretty mysterious.
While this is a good way to end a tense week with a sense of heartening relief, it is interesting to note that it took nearly 24 hours to run this 19-year old kid to ground. Despite the lock-down of Greater Boston and the use of thousands of trained security personnel.
While there is much still to be learned about he and his brother, and they were clearly well-conditioned young athletes, there is nothing as yet to suggest that they were highly-trained elite operators.
If two young guys, who clearly had no exit plan to speak of — last night’s unraveling was set in motion after they killed an MIT campus cop and robbed a convenience store, not exactly brilliant moves — can wreak such havoc and avoid capture as well as they did, just imagine what a team of experts could do.
Actually, we don’t have to imagine. We saw that scenario unfold in over Thanksgiving 2008, in Mumbai. We’re fortunate that Boston wasn’t a repeat.
In fact, I’m not so sure that these guys didn’t want to be caught. Had the 19-year old worn his ball cap pitched forward, as his older brother did, they would have been much harder to identify from the video footage.
So, a good result this evening. But let’s not get carried away.
** 1610 PACIFIC UPDATE: THE SURVIVING BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT IS REPORTEDLY PINNED DOWN IN THE BOSTON AREA TOWN OF WATERTOWN. A burst of automatic weapons fire, followed by a volley of gas, may herald the taking down of 19-year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. In addition to firearms, the Tsarnaevs proved last night to have quite a few explosives.
Hopefully, he is taken alive, because there is much we need to know.
Despite an unprecedented lock-down of the Boston metropolitan area, the surviving Boston bombing suspect continued to elude capture into the early evening hours on the East Coast.
** UNNERVED BY THE UNCERTAINTY OF COMPLEXITY: THE BOSTON BOMBINGS.Even before the wild overnight developments in the Boston bombings — Russians, Chechens, the Caucuses (sic), Kyrgy-what? — it was clear that we are culturally unprepared for the complexity of the Boston bombings.
Wednesday saw a panoply of false news reports from wire services, newspapers, and cable news outlets to the effect that a suspected Boston Marathon bomber had been arrested. Oops. When you get something as straightforward as that wrong …
The dysfunctionality should not have been a surprise, since the whole shallow rush-to-false-judgment trope was set in motion from the beginning, when an Arab onlooker was tackled near the finish line because, you know, he just had to be responsible. Which was followed by the usual loony tunes conspiracy theories from various points of the spinning ideological compass, that the Saudis abetted by their lick-spittle Obama … the far right haters of the capital of liberal America … the government and corporate overlords out to impose a police state, were responsible for the horror.
The truth, as it often is, is likely to be much more interesting than these tired notions.
This is going to get very complicated, especially for the American audience. Our political and media culture just isn’t geared to a globalized world, or to the reality that we live in history, not the moment.
The two suspected terrorist bombers are Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, killed in an overnight firefight, and
19-year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, believed to be on the loose in the Boston area. The two have reportedly lived in America for the past decade.
They are Russian Chechens, who made their way here through Kyrgyzstan — where the current fugitive was born shortly after the end of the Soviet Union — a mountainous former Central Asian Soviet republic. I have visited Kyrgyzstan, one of the more pleasant unstable countries around, though not so unstable that the US doesn’t have a major base there which has aided tremendously in the Afghan War. An ex of mine so excelled in school that, at the tail end of the Soviet Union, she found herself uprooted from her comfy life in Moscow and shipped off to an elite Soviet math and science academy in the then Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic’s capital of Bishkek. Which was then called Frunze, after a founder of the Red Army. The US Air Force base at Manas is just outside the capital.
How did the Tsarnaevs come to be in Kyrgyzstan, which is Islamic though not vehemently so, with a government close to Russia? As part of the Chechen disapora. The Chechens are a Muslim people who have been at war intermittently with the ruling Russians since the Russian Empire took over Chechnya early in the 19th century after defeating Persia, now Iran, in one of the wars between the two ancient powers.
Here’s the younger Tsarnaev on Russian social media, where he signed in this morning.
The Russian Federation has, after being humiliated in the mid-1990s, put down a major Chechen uprising, employing brutal tactics. It was President Vladimir Putin’s success in defeating the Chechen rebels that cemented his power in Moscow.
Why attack the Boston Marathon rather than, say, Moscow, which organized Chechen terrorists have done to spectacular effect on several occasions? We’ll see.
Are others involved? Or is this simply a bizarre turn in the lives of two young immigrant men, one of whom, the older brother, competed in the National Golden Gloves boxing tournament in furtherance of his hope of representing America rather than Russia in the Olympics, the other of whom was a Greater Boston All-Star high school wrestler who worked as a lifeguard at Harvard?
Tamerlane, incidentally, was the legendary 14th century leader who conquered Central, South, and West Asia. He referred to himself as the “Sword of Islam.”
Hardly anyone in America has heard of him, but he is a world historical figure, both as a fearsome warrior and as a consolidator of Islamic power in a multi-ethnic military empire.
Is the name significant, or it just a famous name, like American Samoans calling their kids Kennedy?
The most intriguing thing about this case, at least that we know so far, is what did not happen. No claim of responsibility, no furtherance of a cause, no matter how delusional, no insistence that behavior must be stopped, or adopted.
Why undertake such a complex, daring, and horrifying act to no apparent purpose? Unless the purpose was simply nihilistic, to exact grievous harm. Or essentially existential, to create fear about our way of life.
Was the attack designed to undermine trust and mutual understanding, things in very short supply in America already?
Of course, these may just be a couple of young, not especially bright guys wreaking havoc for no particular reason. Or there may be a longer game involved. Or things may have gotten fouled up. Or …
We don’t know. We should avoid pretending to know until we actually do. If we do.
The uncle of the Boston bombing suspects, Ruslan Tsarni, a Russian Chechen immigrant, emphatically discusses their backgrounds and alleged acts.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … UNNERVED BY THE UNCERTAINTY OF COMPLEXITY: THE BOSTON BOMBINGS.
** 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.
Obviously, we are all transfixed by the overnight developments in the Boston bombing case, developments still dramatically unfolding.
The Boston area is in lockdown by order of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
The two suspected terrorist bombers are Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, killed in an overnight firefight, and
19-year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, believed to be on the loose in the Boston area.
This is going to get very complicated, especially for the American audience.
The two have lived in America for the past decade. They are Russian Chechens, who made their way here through Kyrgyzstan — where the current fugitive was born shortly after the end of the Soviet Union — a mountainous former Central Asian Soviet republic which I have visited.
The Chechens are a Muslim people who have been at war intermittently with the ruling Russians since the Russian Empire took over Chechnya early in the 19th century after defeating Persia, now Iran, in one of their infrequent wars.
The Russian Federation has over the past 15 years or so put down a major Chechen uprising, with brutal tactics involved. It was Vladimir Putin’s success in defeating the Chechens that fueled his rise to power in Moscow.
Why attack the Boston Marathon, rather than Moscow, which organized Chechen terrorists have done on several occasions? We’ll see.
Are others involved? Or is this simply a bizarre turn in the lives of two young immigrant men, one of whom, the older brother, competed in the National Golden Gloves boxing tournament, the other of whom was a Greater Boston All-Star high school wrestler who worked as a lifeguard at Harvard?
Tamerlane, incidentally, was the legendary 14th century leader who conquered Central, South, and West Asia. He referred to himself as the “Sword of Islam.”
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen 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 got good news this morning, with California’s unemployment rate dropping again, to 9.4% in March from 9.6% the previous month.
Still not good enough, but a vast improvement over the past few years.
Central Valley ag opponents to the California high-speed rail program, their legal case on tenterhooks, settled out of court yesterday with the state. Brown, back from his China mission, put out a brief statement: “This is a very positive development and I commend the High-Speed Rail Authority on working closely with California farmers and arriving at a very solid settlement.”
Brown’s school funding proposal, which would direct more funding to districts with more lower-income students and non-English speakers and also eliminate most categorical spending programs to grant more flexibility to local education leaders, is getting more than 70% support in a new Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll.
Naturally, Brown’s school funding changes are not nearly as popular with the state legislature, where organized interests opposed to changes have legislative ears, among other body parts.
Pakistani police arrested former President Pervez Musharraf at his residence on the outskirts of Islamabad and presented him in court on his involvement in the decision to dismiss senior judges, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, in 2007. Television footage on Friday showed Musharraf, dressed in traditional clothes, being escorted by uniformed police officers to an Islamabad court.
** 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.
** 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.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum. You can send me a private tip by clicking on the “Contact” button in the upper right.
President Barack Obama delivered a message of solace and resolve at today’s interfaith service honoring the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. But larger questions went largely unaddressed.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE BOSTON BOMBING: THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF UNCERTAINTY.
** QUICK HITS. Central Valley ag opponents to the California high-speed rail program, their legal case on tenterhooks, settled out of court today with the state. Governor Jerry Brown, back from his China mission, put out a brief statement: “This is a very positive development and I commend the High-Speed Rail Authority on working closely with California farmers and arriving at a very solid settlement.” … Brown’s school funding proposal, which would direct more funding to districts with more lower-income students and non-English speakers and also eliminate most categorical spending programs to grant more flexibility to local education leaders, is getting more than 70% support in a new Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll. It’s not as popular with legislators, though.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE TERROR OF NOT KNOWING.
** 1430 PACIFIC UPDATE: I had been waiting for the FBI release of pictures of the Boston Marathon attack suspects.
One of the two I might be able to recognize. Emphasis on “might.” The other could walk right past me and I would never recognize him.
I’m not even sure what ethnicity they are.
** NEW SURVEY: LARGE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WANTS REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH, SLIGHT MAJORITY WANTS HEAVY TAXES ON THE RICH. A new Gallup Poll survey contains little joy for those who back the longstanding Republican position for cutting taxes on the rich.
In fact, quite the contrary.
Some 59% believe that money and wealth should be more evenly distributed in American society; just 33% think the present state of affairs is fair.
Among Democrats, it’s 83-14 on more distribution/situation is fine. Among independents, it’s 60-32. Among Republicans, it’s 28-60.
52% want redistribution of wealth by “heavy taxes on the rich,” while 45% do not.
Responses to this question have varied within a fairly small range since Gallup began to ask it in 1998, from a low of 45% favoring tax-based redistribution that year to today’s 52%, which by one percentage point is the highest measured. Although the plurality response has shifted modestly between the “favor” and “oppose” positions, Americans have been generally divided on the issue. …
There are large partisan differences on this question as well, with a swing from 72% of Republicans who oppose heavy taxes on the rich as a method of wealth redistribution to 75% of Democrats who favor this type of action. …
The majority of Americans believe that money and wealth in the U.S. should be more evenly distributed, and a slight majority support the idea of the government helping to achieve that goal by “heavy” taxes on the rich. The idea that the distribution of money and wealth is unfair has been evident in survey responses since 1984, with only minor fluctuations from measure to measure. But, Americans have over the past 15 years typically been more evenly divided on the idea that the government should intervene with heavy taxes — although they now appear to lean more in the redistributionist direction than they did back in 1939. …
President Barack Obama blames the power of the National Rifle Association and others in the gun lobby for thwarting popular gun control legislation.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE TERROR OF NOT KNOWING.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington and Massachusetts.
Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama flew on Air Force One early this morning to Boston, Massachusetts.
At 8 AM Pacific, Obama joins those delivering remarks at Healing Our City: An Interfaith Service dedicated to those who were gravely wounded or killed in Monday’s bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
The event is at Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston.
At 11:55 AM Pacific, the Obamas depart Boston, Massachusetts on Air Force One en route Joint Base Andrews.
At 1:15 PM Pacific, the Obamas arrive Joint Base Andrews, where they board Marine One.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, the Obamas land on the South Lawn of the White House.
At 2:30 PM Pacific, Obama hosts a reception for Greek Independence Day in the East Room.
All gun control measures went down to the defeat yesterday in the US Senate.
Senator Dianne Feinstein’s attempt to revive the federal assault weapons ban was defeated, 40 to 60. Only one Republican voted yes, Illinois Senator Mark Kirk, a naval reserve commander.
The bipartisan bill to eliminate the gun show loophole on background checks for weapons purchases was also defeated. It received 54 votes, but needed 60 to break a conservative Republican filibuster.
Only four Republican senators voted for the background checks bill. In addition to its co-sponsor, Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, they are Arizona Senator John McCain, Illinois Senator Mark Kirk, and Maine Senator Susan Collins. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changed his aye to no at the last moment to give him the opportunity to bring up the bill in the future when he so chooses.
There are still no arrests in the Boston Marathon bombings, despite numerous erroneous news reports yesterday.
One poor soul in Mississippi, described as an Elvis impersonator and fringe right conspiracy nut, has been arrested for sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and conservative Republican Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker.
He probably hasn’t the intelligence to be involved with the Boston terrorist attack.
A massive fertilizer plant outside Waco, Texas blew up last night, killing 15 and injuring 160. At this point, there is no known connection to the Boston bombings. Waco is in West Texas. It’s home to Baylor University, which recently produced Heisman Trophy-winner Robert Griffin III, the Washington Redskins’ sensational NFL Rookie of the Year and Pro Bowl quarterback RG3.
Another day has passed without a North Korean missile launch. The Hermit Kingdom has responded to a bid for direct talks with the US with a set of unreasonable demands, including the ending of all sanctions against it.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen 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.
State legislators at an oversight hearing yesterday blasted the leadership of the Public Utilities Commission for being indifferent to safety concerns and having a very cozy relationship with the utilities they are supposed to regulate.
The San Jose Mercury News issued a strong editorial yesterday on the report, which was commissioned originally by the PUC itself: “A scathing new report makes clear what we’ve suspected since San Bruno: The California Public Utilities Commission is grossly incapable of holding utilities to the most basic standard of safety. Heads should roll throughout the organization.”
It’s been two-and-a-half years since a PG&E natural gas line blew up in the Bay Area city of San Bruno, killing eight people and destroying nearly 40 homes.
Legislators and local officials alike ripped the PUC for lack of progress since then.
China’s navy is stepping up its patrol around the disputed Diaoyu or Senkaku islands which lie between the mainland and Japan. The Chinese Navy entered the waters around the islands, which are also claimed by Japan, on Tuesday night to conduct defensive and offensive exercises.
** 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.
** 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 $87 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $53 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 $27 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 notably perturbed President Barack Obama said the U.S. Senate’s failure to pass a bill that would have expanded background checks for gun buyers marks a “shameful day” in Washington.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE TERROR OF NOT KNOWING.
** QUICK HITS. Well, not only were all those breathless news reports today about the arrest of a suspect in the attack on the Boston Marathon just flat wrong — there’s a guy or two looking suspicious in amateur video — there was no promised federal briefing today, either. .. There was, however, an arrest of a guy in Tupelo, Mississippi who sent ricin-laced letters to Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, a conservative Republican, needless to say, and President Barack Obama. A fellow named Kenneth Curtis. Both letters declared “to see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance” and concluded with this phrase: “I am KC and I approve this message.” Obviously a clear-thinking rocket scientist type citizen. … Obama blasted the expected defeat of legislation to close the gun show loophole on background checks for gun sales in an afternoon appearance at the White House. Tomorrow Obama heads to Boston to mark Monday’s terrorist atrocity there.
** JERRY BROWN LEAVES THE PARTY BEHIND IN CHINA.Governor Jerry Brown is just back from his first major trip abroad during this incarnation as California’s governor. It coincided with the annual state Democratic convention, but that didn’t give him pause as he had bigger fish to fry in China.
While he was away, Brown got some good news from back home with California state revenues continuing to run higher than projected, by nearly $400 million in March alone, the state’s chronic budget crisis now in the rear view mirror.
Which only made sense, because Brown’s “California Trade and Investment Mission To China” was primarily about money. Brown announced new deals for Chinese investment in California totaling close to $2 billion, with business people making a panoply of additional connections on the trip.
Brown departed for China the day after a private celebration of his 75th birthday on April 7th. He and First Lady/Special Advisor Anne Gust Brown led a large private sector delegation of Californians, some 90-strong, organized by the Brown Administration and the Bay Area Council, a moderate business organization based in San Francisco, with a few administration officials and old friends along as well.
Brown was out to show that the state’s dynamism and economic leadership in technology, entertainment, aerospace, and agriculture, and its expertise in environmental protection, make it a fit partner for China, the world’s second largest economy with one of the world’s most troubled environments. The PRC is already the third largest trade partner for the world’s ninth largest economy, trailing only Mexico and Canada in economic exchange with California.
He also went to explore China’s feat of installing 5,000 miles of high-speed rail lines in the last several years, putting aside all talk of other issues involving the PRC which are frequently aired in my longer pieces on the Obama Administration and America’s geopolitical pivot to the Asia-Pacific, the archive for which is here. Brown heads up the only major high-speed rail program in America.
As he departed, Brown had in hand a very good and intriguing Financial Times profile. With his pithy observations of the past 50 years — including a chat with JFK about “Red China” and telling insights on the unsustainability of both conventional economic development and the state’s public pension system — it’s well worth reading. Plus, it has some amazing photos from over the years.
Brown, incidentally, made no announcement about his re-election next year, but he did say this: “I have no intention of walking off the stage here, now that I’m on it.” As readers know, I’ve always said he is going for his fourth term as governor of California.
While in China, Brown missed the second of three California Democratic Party conventions in his renewed governorship to date. He had minor surgery just before the 2011 convention and made a brief appearance at the 2012 convention, after putting on full-court press convention performances in 2009 and 2010.
He didn’t miss much. It was a pretty routine affair, with no national figures coming in.
Party officers were elected, including current state Democratic chairman John Burton. The former San Francisco/Marin congressman and state Senate president pro tem, now 80, has served as state party chairman for the past seven years.
The California Democratic convention ran its course well before it ended with the obligatory resolutions Sunday closing session resolutions decrying Prop 13, fracking, and education reform opposed by the teachers union. Actually, I think it ran its course by Friday night.
Burton kept it a pretty low-key affair in Brown’s absence, with a notable lack of triumphalism about the big Democratic wins last November. Not that Burton didn’t get off a few of his patented zingers, mostly about Brown being represented at the convention by famed First Dog Sutter Brown, by far the best known Corgi outside Buckingham Palace. And Brown being no doubt petrified by his potential 2014 opponents, including his “pissing his pants” at the thought of running against former Republican Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado.
Many who want to be governor had their convention audition speeches Saturday. But with Brown’s re-election campaign all but announced, there are five more state conventions before the next contested Democratic gubernatorial primary. A lot can happen between now and then. And something tells me that not all the top 2018 candidates were at the convention.
Brown led California’s delegation to a wide array of events and meetings in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. After Shenzhen, China’s newest mega-city, he and the first lady went briefly to Hong Kong — which in the not so old British colonial days was the only place anyone could go for business — before flying back to San Francisco. For all his aversion to big parties at home, Brown presided at some major shindigs in China, especially in Shanghai and Beijing.
Brown got his trip off to a flying start in Beijing, meeting with China’s new premier, commerce minister, and environmental minister, announcing one of the biggest Chinese investments in the US. …
** OBAMA SCHEDULE UPDATE: President Barack Obama will deliver remarks from the White House at 2:30 PM Pacific following defeat in the U.S. Senate for new gun control legislation on background checks.
** 1145 PACIFIC UPDATE: DESPITE MULTIPLE FALSE NEWS REPORTS, NO ARRESTS YET IN BOSTON TERRORIST ATTACK. In the last hour there has been a panoply of false news reports from wire services, newspapers, and cable news outlets to the effect that a suspected Boston Marathon bomber has been arrested.
No one has been arrested.
There is amateur video of someone behaving very suspiciously in the immediate aftermath of the detonations, someone who may or may not be involved in the attack.
This person may or may not have been identified. He is not in custody. While he looks quite suspicious, it is not clear to me from the video I’ve seen that he is involved in the attack.
Federal authorities will reportedly hold a press briefing sometime in the next few hours.
** NEW SURVEY: U.S. SATISFACTION WAS UP, PRIOR TO THE BOSTON TERRORIST ATTACK. A new Gallup Poll survey indicates that the level of satisfaction in America had reached the highest point since last fall, when satisfaction went up in the midst of the presidential campaign. Which, of course, was yet another clue that President Barack Obama was in good shape for re-election, a clue which the Gallup Poll itself did not pay attention to.
Three in 10 Americans were satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. before Monday’s bombing attacks at the Boston Marathon. That is the highest since last fall, when satisfaction rose during September, October, and November, coincident with the 2012 presidential election campaign. …
Americans’ satisfaction levels have been fairly low for most of the last six years. Aside from last fall’s ratings in the 30s, the only other times satisfaction reached that level was in May through August 2009, during the early months of Barack Obama’s presidency. Satisfaction has not been at the 40% level since July 2005, and not at the 50% level since January 2004.
Gallup has asked the satisfaction question monthly since April 2000, and periodically since 1979. The historical average satisfaction rating is 38%, with a high of 71% in February 1999 and a low of 7% in October 2008. Satisfaction reached as high as 70% in the months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Democrats, Nonwhites Most Satisfied Among Key Subgroups
Democrats (48%) and nonwhites (46%) are most likely to express satisfaction with conditions in the U.S. Young adults’ and liberals’ satisfaction also exceeds 40%. These four groups usually also rank among President Obama’s strongest supporters. Not surprisingly, then, Republicans, at 12%, are least satisfied among key subgroups. …
Britain, and a host of world leaders, bids farewell today to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, one of the towering figures of late 20th century politics, at an imposing funeral commemoration in London. Former Secretary of State George Shultz of California and former Secretary of State James Baker lead the US delegation.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … JERRY BROWN LEAVES THE PARTY BEHIND IN CHINA and THE TERROR OF NOT KNOWING.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama then met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 9:15 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew in the Oval Office.
At 1:05 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden welcome the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride to South Lawn of the White House in celebration of the seventh annual Soldier Ride.
At 3:30 PM Pacific, Obama meets with Democratic members of the U.S. Senate for dinner at the Jefferson Hotel.
Gun control comes up for vote today in the Senate. Prospects are poor. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin acknowledged this morning that he does not have the votes for his bipartisan background check measure.
There is no apparent progress in the investigation into who attacked the Boston Marathon on Monday.
The current casualty toll stands at three dead and 176 wounded.
No individual or organization has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack.
Meanwhile, letters laced with lethal ricin have been discovered in the post to Obama and to Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker.
Again, no claim of responsibility has been made.
In some good news, another day has passed without North Korea undertaking a much threatened launch of a “test” intermediate range ballistic missiles.
The US may well have succeeded in effectively engaging China, North Korea’s lone major ally aside from Iran, in finding a way to chill the situation.
Former Secretary of State George Shultz of California and former Secretary of State James Baker lead the US delegation at today’s funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in London.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
Brown and First Lady/Special Advisor Anne Gust Brown flow in to San Francisco early this morning from Hong Kong.
He has no scheduled public events as of this morning.
In other action, the state legislature will received its commissioned report today excoriating the California Public Utilities Commission for lax regulation.
And another group, this one a business-backed libertarian foundation, is fruitlessly suing to invalidate California’s greenhouse gas cap and trade market, now up and running well, as an illegal tax.
A doctor treating those wounded in Monday’s terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon talks about the massive amount of shrapnel expelled in the blasts and the resulting large numbers of leg amputations among the survivors.
** 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.
** 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 $87 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $53 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 $27 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.
The US immigration system would undergo dramatic changes under a bipartisan Senate bill that seeks to end illegal immigration by creating legal avenues for workers and securing borders. The bill would put the 11 million immigrants who are in the country illegally on a 13-year path to US citizenship that would cost each $2,000 in fines. It would also create new immigration opportunities for tens of thousands of workers, as well as a “merit visa” aimed at bringing people with special skills to the US. Senators had planned to formally introduce the bill today, but after Monday’s bombing at the Boston Marathon, the event was delayed until later in the week. (The USC Schwarzenegger Institute holds an event with the bill co-authors on April 30th.)
** QUICK HITS. Still nothing but speculation on the perpetrator(s) of the Boston terrorist bombing. President Barack Obama heads to Boston on Thursday. While the attack is frightening, the dominant feeling I have now is irritation. … Former Secretary of State George Shultz of California and former Secretary of State James Baker have been designated by Obama as the leaders of the US delegation to Wednesday’s funeral of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in London. … The USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy hosts an immigration reform forum on April 30th in Los Angeles. Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona and Democratic Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado, co-authors of the emerging bipartisan bill, will join former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Mexican President Vicente Fox, former US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, USC Professor Dowell Myers, and others at the event.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … JERRY BROWN LEAVES THE PARTY BEHIND IN CHINA and THE TERROR OF NOT KNOWING.
** NEW SURVEY: DESPITE SIGNS OF SOME MOVEMENT ON THE ISSUES, IMMIGRATION AND GUNS RANK LOW ON NATIONAL CONCERNS. A new Gallup Poll survey indicates that few Americans see immigration or guns as among the most important issues of the day.
This despite a flurry of recent political activity around them, and some signs of movement on both issues.
A gun control package is about to come up for debate in the US Senate, though prospects are iffy even for expanded background checks.
An immigration reform package is about to be announced by a bipartisan group of US senators. Though I know you’ve heard that before over the past couple of months.
Instead, what people care about, by an overwhelming margin, is the economy. And the dysfunction of the political system.
Guns have never been seen as a top issue by most Americans.
Three times as many Americans named immigration a top area of concern in 2006 as do so today.
Few Americans mention guns or immigration as the most important problems facing the nation today, despite the current attention lawmakers in Washington are giving to these issues. The economy still dominates as the top concern, followed by jobs and dissatisfaction with the general way in which Congress and the government work. …
In terms of specific economic issues, Americans most frequently name the economy in general (24%), jobs/unemployment (18%), and the deficit (11%). The percentage mentioning each of these economic issues is in the same broad range as has been the case each month this year so far, although a higher 20% mentioned the deficit as the nation’s top problem in January.
From a longer-term perspective, top-of-mind mentions of these economic issues are down significantly from their five-year highs. A high of 58% mentioned the economy as the nation’s top problem in November 2008, and 39% named jobs as the No. 1 issue in September 2011. …
The 4% of Americans mentioning guns as the nation’s top problem is the same as it was last month, and comparable to the 6% in February and 4% in January and December, the last measure having been taken just after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Prior to these past several months, in recent years virtually no Americans mentioned guns as the nation’s top problem. …
The 4% of Americans who name immigration as the top problem is about the same as the 5% who mentioned it last month. More generally, Americans have been significantly more likely to mention immigration issues than guns as the nation’s top problem in recent years. In April 2006, for example, 19% of Americans said immigration was the nation’s top problem, second only to the Iraq war at that point. At least 10% of Americans also mentioned immigration as the top problem at other points in 2007, 2008, and 2010. …
In a press conference Tuesday, President Barack Obama called the explosions at the Boston Marathon a “heinous and cowardly act.” The president said that the FBI is investigating the bombings as an “act of terror.”
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … JERRY BROWN LEAVES THE PARTY BEHIND IN CHINA.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama then appeared in the Brady Press Briefing Room to discuss yesterday’s attack on the Boston Marathon, which he described as an act of terrorism.
He did not further characterize what sort of terrorism it is. There have been no reports of any group or individual claiming responsibility for the attack. The Taliban, which did claim credit for a thwarted 2011 attack on Times Square in New York, specifically denied any responsibility. Of course, they are now engaged in at least intermittent peace discussions on the Afghan War.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama holds a working lunch with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates in the Private Dining Room.
The UAE has emerged as a key US ally in the Arab world.
At 12 PM Pacific, Obama welcomes race car driver Brad Keselowski to the White House to honor his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship on the South Lawn.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in the Oval Office.
The scene is naturally dominated by yesterday’s bombings of the Boston Marathon, the world’s longest running annual marathon race, one of the six World Marathon Majors. (The marathon, a 26.2 mile race, dates back to the run of the Greek messenger Pheidippides bearing news of the Athenian victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.)
The other World Marathon Majors are the London, Berlin, Chicago, New York, and Tokyo Marathons. The London Marathon is scheduled to take place on April 21st. The next in the series, the Berlin Marathon, doesn’t take place till September.
The bombs were set to go off well after the world-class runners had finished the race, leaving the field to the thousands of running enthusiasts who take part in these great festivals of fitness.
The casualty toll stands currently at three dead, more than 140 wounded. More than a dozen victims are severely wounded, so the death toll may well go up.
A bipartisan group of US senators finally has its immigration reform package ready to go, with late agreements on a guest worker program being slightly scaled back in response to labor concerns. But this is not the time to release it.
Another day passed without a North Korean missile launch.
Secretary of State John Kerry called yesterday for direct talks with North Korea, putting aside the multilateral framework which the Pyongyang regime may regard as insufficiently respectful to it.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in China.
Today Brown, First Lady/Special Advisor Anne Gust Brown and others were in Shenzhen, another key part of Guangdong province, to meet with top government officials and tour BYD worldwide headquarters. BYD is a major manufacturer of automobiles and rechargeable batteries. In his remarks early in this trip, Brown challenged his Chinese hosts to solve the battery problem which still constrains alternative vehicle development.
BYD is opening a bus manufacture plant in Lancaster, a community 70 miles north of Los Angeles.
After meeting with Brown, the provincial party secretary called him a figure of enlightenment, a statesman who is also like a university professor.
The Browns then moved on to Hong Kong. From there, they will return to San Francisco.
Stars of May’s Star Trek Into Darkness, which apparently centers on a terrorist attack, discussed the Boston bombings at the 2013 CinemaCon in Las Vegas.
** 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.
** 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 $89 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $55 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 $25 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.
Video from the Boston Globe shows the first explosion that rocked the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday afternoon. Casualty figures have been updated to include two dead so far and more than 100 wounded.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … JERRY BROWN LEAVES THE PARTY BEHIND IN CHINA.
** QUICK HITS.Much is still very unclear about the terrorist attack which struck today’s Boston Marathon, held as usual on the Massachusetts state holiday of Patriots Day marking the first battles of the American Revolution in Lexington and Concord. There is no one presently designated as a suspect in custody. … The New York Times won four Pulitzer Prizes today, including the award for international reporting to journalist David Barboza for his examination of how the “Red Nobility” of close relatives of top Chinese government officials, including the family of China’s premier, made billions from businesses with close ties to the government. The paper found most of its computer systems compromised by hacking attacks in the midst of the investigation. … Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel today dropped the new Distinguished Warfare Medal, derisively dubbed the “Drone Medal,” from the list of US military decorations. The award had been approved by veteran California political figure Leon Panetta, but came under heavy fire for being rated above the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. … Hagel ordered that existing decorations be awarded to deserving drone operators and cyber specialists, with a new distinguishing clasp to be developed for affixing to such medals.
** GALE FORCE WINDS OF HISTORY HIT MAD MEN, WHICH STILL FINDS THE TIME FOR SOME OBVIOUS PRACTICAL LESSONS.Gusts of history are blowing through Mad Men now, with characters increasingly uneasy about America being pushed around in the Asia-Pacific region, taking note of conspiracy theories around the assassination of President Kennedy, and joyously and joylessly embracing the burgeoning sexual revolution.
Unfortunately, two of our main characters have chosen to partake with playmates living within a few hundred feet of their homes. This, and pay attention now, is, not at all surprisingly, a formula for absolute disaster. But Don Draper still deftly saves the day for his ad agency strategy.
Some spoilers are here, of course, and you can see the archive of my Mad Men pieces by clicking here on The Mad Men File.
This was a workmanlike episode, Mad Men moving some plot elements further into place, another chapter in Matt Weiner’s novel for television, with some deft direction from series star Jon Hamm. The critical and fan response I’ve seen looks rather sedate. Recaps are everywhere and nowhere, the show itself easy to watch if you haven’t, so I’ll just weigh in with some thoughts.
It’s late January 1968. The Tet Offensive has exploded across Vietnam, exploding the then prevalent myth that the Viet Cong were close to finished, though Vietnamese Communist forces suffered severe losses in the process. The Navy spy ship USS Pueblo has been captured by North Korean forces, kicking off a bloody hostage drama that will drag on for 11 months and result, as we learned many years later, in a massive intelligence coup for the Soviet Union. And New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison — Kevin Costner will play him in the 1991 Oliver Stone epic — is surfacing with what many find to be a compelling conspiracy theory in the JFK assassination.
The brutality and angst of all this reverberates through the episode as characters sort their way through the growing sexual revolution and chart courses through complex workplace waters.
The Dick Whitman flashbacks long ago became overused, being far too on the nose. In this episode, they seem to be employed to provide more explanation for why Don Draper is so highly sexed. (Except, he isn’t really very highly sexed. He’s had remarkably few partners for someone who is supposedly a major ’60s playboy type.)
So what’s the explanation? It can’t be that sex is fun, especially in the blossoming sexual revolution of the 1960s. No, it’s because Don, son of a prostitute, was raised in a whorehouse. I’ve got to say, this trope of explaining Don’s not exactly amazing behavior by providing a paint-by-numbers psychological explanation is one of the, ah, least clever things in an otherwise highly intelligent show.
For a guy who is supposedly losing it, as some fans and reviewers have imagined in, well, each and every season of this show, Don did a masterful job of getting exactly what he wanted with Jaguar, keeping the majority of the client board very happy. The two Jag execs were clearly not on board with what the idiot car dealer wanted with his self-involved local radio campaign; it was just a matter of bringing that out, which Don did perfectly.
Continuing on the ad business front, Don’s rival and Peggy Olson’s new boss Ted Chaough was fine in seizing on what she learned from her old pal Stan about the Heinz ketchup account being in play. Because it would wreck the relationship with the account it does have, Heinz baked beans, SCDP literally can’t go after Heinz ketchup. Despite it being “the Coca-Cola of condiments,” as Kenny Cosgrove so amusingly put it.
Was Peggy bad for mentioning all this to her boss? Of course not. Telling him what Sterling Coo isn’t going to do is hardly disrupting anything it is going to do, which would have been a violation of her conversation with her old colleague and dear friend Stan.
Incidentally, Peggy and Stan certainly come off as soul mates with this regular evening phone date thing they have going. In a way that seems quite the opposite of when they were colleagues. But would the magic last if they were actually in the same room together? …
From Mid-day: Two explosions took place near the finish line of today’s Boston Marathon. At least two people have been killed and 22 wounded. The cause is yet unknown.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … GALE FORCE WINDS OF HISTORY HIT MAD MEN, WHICH STILL FINDS THE TIME FOR SOME OBVIOUS PRACTICAL LESSONS and JERRY BROWN LEAVES THE PARTY BEHIND.
** NEW SURVEY: FEWEST IN MORE THAN A DECADE SEE TAX SYSTEM AS FAIR. A new Gallup Poll survey indicates that the lowest percentage of Americans since 2001 sees the tax system as being fair to them.
The high point in the past decade came right after the Iraq War began, which is the same time in which then President George W. Bush signed across-the-board tax cuts in to law.
That was a very unusual approach, not incidentally, embarking on what proved to be a massive war by cutting federal revenue. Of course, the war effort was supposed to be self-sufficient, from the vast proceeds to be derived from newly accessible Iraqi oil fields.
It decidedly did not work out that way. But I digress.
This Tax Day, 55% of Americans regard the income taxes they have to pay as fair, the lowest percentage Gallup has measured since 2001. …
Gallup’s history of asking this question stretches back to the 1940s. From 1943 through 1945, during World War II, few Americans complained about their taxes, with an average of 87% of Americans saying their taxes were fair. That dropped down to an average of 61% in 1946, the first year after the war.
Gallup resurrected the question in the late 1990s, when an average 48% said their income taxes were fair, including the historical low of 45% in 1999. Americans’ views of their taxes as fair improved from 51% in 2001 to 58% in 2002, shortly after the Bush administration put into place a round of tax cuts.
Perceptions of income tax fairness, perhaps surprisingly, vary little by household income level. Fifty-seven percent of those whose annual household income level is below $75,000 say their taxes are fair, as do 54% of those whose income is $75,000 or above.
In fact, there are no notable differences by most major demographic groups. The biggest differences are based on political affiliation, with Democrats and political liberals much more likely than Republicans and conservatives to believe their taxes are fair. …
North Koreans on Monday celebrated the 101st anniversary of the birth of the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung. There had been speculation that Pyongyang might use the occasion to conduct a missile test.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … MAD MEN HAS A PRACTICAL TIP and JERRY BROWN LEAVES THE PARTY BEHIND.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama then met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 11:05 AM Pacific, Obama honors the BCS National Champion University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team on the South Lawn.
At 1:30 PM Pacific, Obama participates in an Ambassador Credentialing Ceremony in the Oval Office.
Secretary of State John Kerry seems to have made headway with his weekend visit to Beijing, winning apparent new Chinese pressure on its North Korean ally to rein in its provocative activities as well as support for comprehensive talks with the US and South Korea.
North Korea rejected these talks, at least so far, with the now all too familiar venomous language. But it was not repeated.
And there has been no new test as of yet, while Kerry moved on to Japan where he won more support.
Kerry also went on to call for direct talks with North Korea, putting aside the multilateral framework which the Pyongyang regime may regard as insufficiently respectful to it.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
Senator Dianne Feinstein congratulated Governor Jerry Brown and the Bay Area Council for opening the California-China Office of Trade and Investment in Shanghai.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in China.
After events in Nanjing, the Browns flew on to Guangzhou, formerly Canton, which is on the Pearl River about 75 miles from Hong Kong. Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province.
Its region, the Pearl River Delta, is arguably the key to China’s economic success and is perhaps the largest region of manufacturing on the planet.
Today the Browns and other members of the California delegation took part in a breakfast forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce – South China. Later on Monday, Brown then signed an agreement with Guangdong province, which has the largest population, some 105 million people, and economy of all of China’s provinces.
What was the agreement? A pact to pursue mutual strategies on climate change, pushing renewable energy and energy efficiency as well as means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The agreement establishes a California/Guangdong working group to pursue these goals. If this sounds rather familiar, it is.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has long pursued these issues on a global basis at the “sub-national” level of governance. He, too, went to China promoting these issues, and had Chinese officials take part in his Governors Global Climate Summits.
I was at all three of them. Chinese officials are not loathe to express agreement with general goals. That’s not surprising, since China has jumped on the renewable energy industry worldwide in a big way. But the country’s massive emission of greenhouse gases, much of it driven by coal-fired power, has continued unabated.
What is most likely to slow China’s greenhouse gas emissions is an economic slowdown. Which we may see emerging.
The Browns then had a final dinner at Guangzhou’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel with members of the Bay Area Council, the administration’s non-profit partner on California’s China project, and the rest of the California delegation still there.
On Tuesday, the Browns and company will be in Shenzhen, another key part of Guangdong province, to meet with top government officials and tour BYD worldwide headquarters. BYD is a major manufacture of automobiles and rechargeable batteries. In his remarks early in this trip, Brown challenged his Chinese hosts to solve the battery problem which still constrains alternative vehicle development.
NWN readers will recall the live link here in 2011 to the biennial Universiade — known in the US as the World University Games. Shenzhen was the site. Just a few decades ago it was a small village. Now it is a massive city of some 10 million people, established as a special economic zone for its close proximity to Hong Kong, China’s historic interzone for exchange with the outside world.
** 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.
** 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 $89 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $55 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 $25 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.
The U.S. and Japan offered new talks with North Korea to resolve the potentially explosive impasse over its nuclear and missile programs, but said the reclusive Communist government first must lower tensions and honor previous agreements.
** OBAMA TODAY – SUNDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events.
Secretary of State John Kerry made headway in Beijing, winning apparent new Chinese pressure on its North Korean ally to rein in its provocative activities as well as support for comprehensive talks with the US and South Korea.
However, North Korea is rejecting these talks, at least so far, with the now all too familiar venomous language.
Here’s what Obama’s week ahead looks like. He will be in Washington, throughout, with plenty of time built in for crisis management.
On Monday, Obama will welcome the national collegiate football champion University of Alabama Crimson Tide to the White House to honor the school’s 15th national championship. Later, Obama will participate in an Ambassador Credentialing Ceremony at the White House.
On Tuesday, Obama will hold a working lunch with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates at the White House. The UAE has emerged as one of America’s key allies.
Later on Tuesday, Obama will welcome driver Brad Keselowski to the White House to honor his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
On Wednesday, Obama will welcome the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride to the White House in celebration of the seventh annual Soldier Ride cycling event.
On Thursday and Friday, Obama will attend meetings at the White House.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – SUNDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in China.
Brown and First Lady/Special Advisor Anne Gust Brown took a high-speed rail trip from Shanghai to Nanjing, where they met with Jiangsu Communist Party Secretary Luo Zhijun, the top official in California’s Chinese sister province. The governor then signed an agreement with Luo for California and Jiangsu to collaborate on climate change, technology, education and tourism.
California’s sister province has a population of 79 million, twice that of California, and a GDP of $860 billion, a little over 40% that of the Golden State. Like California, it has extended coastlines.
The Browns will fly on to Guangzhou, formerly Canton, which is on the Pearl River about 75 miles from Hong Kong. (At last getting to very familiar territory for me.) Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province.
On Monday morning in Guangzhou, the Browns and others of the California delegation will take part in a breakfast forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce – South China. Later on Monday, Brown will sign an agreement with Guangdong province, which has the largest population and economy of all of China’s provinces.
On Tuesday, the Browns and company will be in Shenzhen, another key part of Guangdong province, to meet with top government officials and tour BYD worldwide headquarters. BYD is a major manufacture of automobiles and rechargeable batteries. In his remarks early in this trip, Brown challenged his Chinese hosts to solve the battery problem which still constrains alternative vehicle development.
Shenzhen, which is just north of Hong Kong, is a fascinating new city. Until just a few decades ago, it was only a small village.
Now it is a city of more than 10 million people, center of a special economic zone established in 1979 for its proximity to Hong Kong. In 2011, it was the site of the biennial Universiade, better known in the US as the World University Games.
Secretary of State John Kerry is in Beijing where he is meeting with top officials, including Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, as seen here. He later met with China’s new Premier Li Keqiang. Kerry is pushing for more pressure from China on its recalcitrant ally North Korea, and seems to be getting some results.
** OBAMA TODAY – SATURDAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
He has no scheduled public events.
Another day has passed without a North Korean missile launch. The time on the Korean Peninsula is 16 hours ahead of Pacific time, 19 hours ahead of Eastern time.
As the old saying goes, no news is good news. No North Korean missile launch as yet, though there may be some regime anniversaries this month which might seem opportune. The super-heated rhetoric seems to have cooled a bit, perhaps as a result of China weighing in on more heavily on its prickly ally.
Secretary of State John Kerry moved on from the South Korean capital of Seoul to the Chinese capital of Beijing, where he won agreement from the PRC government that North Korea should not have deliverable nuclear weapons.
Without China’s fuel, food, and goods, the North Korean regime would quickly collapse. But that would create a huge refugee problem on China’s doorstep.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
Governor Jerry Brown, riding high-speed rail across China from Beijing to Shanghai. China built 5,000 miles of high-speed rail in just seven years. Brown is pushing the California high-speed rail program, the only major one in America, forward against heavy opposition.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES – SATURDAY. Governor Jerry Brown is in China.
Brown and the California trade and investment mission had a lighter day today in Shanghai.
Brown met privately with Shanghai’s top official, Shanghai Communist Party Secretary Han Zheng, the former mayor. In China, the mayor answers to the party chief. Shanghai, China’s largest city, is both a municipality and a province.
Han is a key member of what is called the “Shanghai clique” in Chinese politics — leaders from the most dynamic part of China, associated with former President Jiang Zemin — and a new member of the ruling party’s national Politburo. New President Xi Jinping is a former Shanghai party chief.
Later on, Brown and company went for a river cruise with former NBA superstar Yao Ming. The 8-time NBA All-Star, whose career was cut short by chronic foot and ankle injuries, played for the Houston Rockets as well as the Chinese national team. The 32-year old, one of the most famous sportsmen in the world, has gone into the California wine business.
Brown takes high-speed rail on Sunday from Shanghai to Nanjing, California’s sister province, then moves on to Guangdong, better known from the old days as Canton, on Monday.
Brown got some good news from back home with California state revenues continuing to run higher than projected in March, by a quarter of a billion dollars in that month alone.
Brown, incidentally, is missing the second of three California Democratic Party conventions in his renewed governorship to date. He had minor surgery just before the 2011 convention and made a brief appearance at the 2012 convention, after putting on full-court press convention performances in 2009 and 2010.
It’s a pretty routine affair this weekend in Sacramento, with no national figures coming in from outside the state.
Party officers will be elected, including current state Democratic chairman John Burton, who has no significant opposition. The former San Francisco and Marin congressman and state Senate president pro tem, now 80, has served as state party chairman for the past seven years.
By an odd coincidence, Burton was also the California Democratic Party chairman the first time Brown was governor, back in the 1970s.
Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had an amusing experience a few days ago during a live interview on Australian television. The interviewer’s impressions of some of Schwarzenegger’s most famous catch phrases are almost as good as the original. But he didn’t dare to do the full version of Total Recall‘s “Get your ass to Mars!”
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILES. Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who travels a lot, and led the last California trade and investment mission to China in 2010, is in California this weekend.
On Sunday, he will host a live memorial service for his lifelong friend and mentor Joe Weider in Santa Monica. Weider passed away late last month at the age of 93. The great bodybuilding entrepreneur brought Schwarzenegger, then the very young Mr. Universe, to America in 1968.
The event will be netcast live at 1 PM on Sunday from this link: http://streaming.bodybuilding.com/joe-weider-memorial/.
** THE KOREA CRISIS: WILL EVENTS SIMPLY RUN THEIR COURSE TILL THE END OF “FOAL EAGLE?” … From my April 11th column.
** 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.
President Barack Obama turned over his weekend video/radio address to Francine Wheeler, whose 6-year old son Ben was murdered along with nineteen other children and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, four months ago. Now, Francine — joined by her husband David — is asking for gun control legislation to prevent future tragedies.
** 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.
** 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 $91.29 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Energy markets are closed on the weekend.
This is up about $57 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 $23 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.
Senator John McCain went on Al Jazeera today to discuss the Korea crisis. He called for tougher sanctions on North Korea and blamed China for not doing enough to prevent outbreak of conflict in the region. He also insisted that the US can “take out the missile at launch.” The question, he said, is what happens next.
** QUICK HITS. As the saying goes, no news is good news. No North Korean missile launch as yet, though there may be some regime anniversaries this month which might seem opportune. The super-heated rhetoric seems to have cooled a bit, perhaps as a result of China weighing in on more heavily on its prickly ally. Or perhaps not. Secretary of State John Kerry is about to arrive in Beijing to press the point. … Governor Jerry Brown got some good news with California state revenues continuing to run higher than projected in March. … Brown’s China trade and investment mission continues through Tuesday. He’s in Shanghai again on Saturday, then moves on to Nanjing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
** NEW SURVEY: MOST FAVOR GIVING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS A CHANCE TO STAY, BUT ARE SHARPLY DIVIDED ON GUEST WORKERS. As a bipartisan group of US senators is reportedly, once again, about to produce a piece of comprehensive immigration reform legislation, a new Gallup Poll survey reveals that nearly seven in 10 Americans favor giving those who’ve immigrated to the US illegally a chance to stay here with legal status.
69% say they would vote for a law giving illegal immigrants the opportunity to become “permanent legal residents” if they “meet certain requirements.”
65% say the same thing about the opportunity to “U.S. citizens.”
A proposal to allow large numbers of guest workers into the country — a looming sticking point in interest group negotiations in Washington — is far more controversial.
Democrats and Democratic leaners are far more supportive than Republicans and Republican leaners of allowing immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to have a chance to stay in the country legally. But, support among Democrats and Republicans is essentially the same regardless of whether the groups are asked about a path that ends with immigrants as “permanent legal residents” or as “U.S. citizens.” …
The proposed bill also includes a visa program for immigrants who are farm workers and are entering low-skilled jobs, although this part of the law was still facing disagreement until a deal was apparently reached Thursday. The difficulty lawmakers have had in finding common ground on this portion of the legislation mirrors the American public’s divisive views on the issue.
About half of Americans (52%) say they would vote for a work visa program that allows a specified number of immigrants into the U.S. every year to work at generally lesser-skilled jobs; 44% would vote against it. When asked whether they would vote for such a program, but “with the number of yearly visas determined by a government bureau,” Americans are just as divided — 51% for and 46% against. …
** NEW SURVEY: FITNESS AND, ER, NON-FITNESS. A new Gallup Poll survey reveals the most and least obsese metropolitan areas in the US.
The South dominates the most obese metro areas in the country, with a leavening of the Midwest.
Colorado dominates the least obese metro areas, with four of the nation’s 10 least obese in the keystone state of the Rocky Mountain West.
California has two of the 10 most fit metropolitan areas in the country — San Francisco-Oakland and San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, which is on the Central Coast — and none of the top 10 in obesity.
For the third consecutive year, residents of the Boulder, Colo., metro area are the least likely to be obese, at 12.5% in 2012. Residents of McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, continue to be the most likely to be obese, at 38.5%. Adult obesity rates are higher than 15% in all but two of the 189 metro areas that Gallup and Healthways surveyed in 2012. …
Along with the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area, Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas; Reading, Pa.; and Huntington-Ashland, W.Va.-Ky.-Ohio, are among the 10 areas with the highest obesity rates for three years in a row. Boulder; Fort Collins-Loveland, Colo.; Naples-Marco Island, Fla.; and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif., have been among the locations with the lowest obesity rates since Gallup and Healthways started reporting them in 2010. …
Nationwide, 26.2% of Americans aged 18 and older were obese in 2012, unchanged from 26.1% in 2011. Of the 189 reportable metro areas surveyed in 2012, 102 had obesity rates lower than the national average. Nineteen of the 25 most populous metro areas surveyed boasted obesity rates lower than the national average. Smaller metro areas were more likely to have above-average obesity rates, consistent with past reporting.
Gallup tracks U.S. obesity levels as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, using Americans’ self-reported height and weight to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI) scores. BMI scores of 30 or higher are considered obese. …
Secretary of State John Kerry has kicked off four days of talks in East Asia amid speculation that North Korea’s unpredictable regime would launch a mid-range missile designed to reach as far as the U.S. territory of Guam.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Biden then goes to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia to deliver remarks at a welcome ceremony for Director John Brennan.
At 11:05 AM Pacific, Obama presents the Commander-in-Chief Trophy to the United States Naval Academy football team at a ceremony in the East Room. Navy won the service academy championship this year, defeating Army and Air Force.
Obama got some good economic news with unemployment claims down sharply.
Another day has passed without a North Korean missile launch. The time on the Korean Peninsula is 16 hours ahead of Pacific time, 19 hours ahead of Eastern time.
Secretary of State John Kerry is in Seoul, South Korea today.
China is apparently weighing in more heavily with North Korea.
Meanwhile, the oddly declassified paragraph of a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that North Korea is able to produce some level of nuclear missile, which caused a brief sensation late yesterday, is being disputed by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
In a way.
In a way, that is, which leaves much open to interpretation, arguing that North Korea has not fully tested its still vague capability.
Well, no, they haven’t test launched a nuclear missile yet.
I discussed this issue in the column linked below, published before the brief DIA assessment was revealed by a Republican congressman.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
Governor Jerry Brown’s trade and investment mission in China continues.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in China.
Brown rode the rails yesterday, the high speed rails of China, that is, making the 800-mile journey from Beijing to Shanghai.
Once in Shanghai, Brown today opened California’s first overseas trade office in the past decade. The California-China Office of Trade and Investment is funded and staffed by the Bay Area Council business group. Brown has sanctioned their activities in Shanghai as representing the State of California.
“California is the gateway to the Pacific and this office in China will help businesses large and small expand trade and jobs,” Brown.
“The California-China Office of Trade and Investment ushers in an exciting new era of cooperation and partnership between two of the world’s largest economies,” Jim Wunderman, President and CEO of the Bay Area Council, said in a statement. “This office will provide California with a valuable and necessary portal for attracting Chinese investment and expanding trade. Some estimates suggest China’s foreign direct investment may reach $2 trillion by 2020 and this trade office says clearly that California is ready to do business, and that we want a big piece of that pie.”
Brown and the new California-China Office of Trade and Investment also announced four new Chinese investments in California, totaling approximately a quarter of a billion dollars.
These investments in pharmaceuticals, construction, waste containment, and marine resources will take place in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Los Angeles area, Sacramento, and San Diego.
The announcements follow on the heels of $1.5 billion to be invested in Oakland.
Brown and state tourism officials also announced the selection of actress Gao Yuanyuan as California’s first tourism ambassador from China.
She will appear in various advertisements and events to promote tourism in the Golden State.
Brown, incidentally, is missing the second of three California Democratic Party conventions in his renewed governorship thusfar. He had minor surgery just before the 2011 convention and made a brief appearance at the 2012 convention, after putting on full-court press convention performances in 2009 and 2010.
Starting today in Sacramento, it’s a pretty routine affair, with no national figures coming in from outside the state. But I’ll have some more on it as we go.
Party officers will be elected, including current state Democratic chairman John Burton, who has no significant opposition. The former San Francisco and Marin congressman and state Senate president pro tem, now 80, has served as state party chairman for the past seven years.
** 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.
** 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 $91 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $57 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 $23 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.
President Barack Obama today posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to Army Captain Emil Kapaun, a Korean War chaplain who died in a North Korean prisoner of war camp nearly 62 years ago after courageously helping his fellow soldiers. Obama presented the medal, America’s highest decoration for valorous acts above and beyond the call of duty, to Kapaun’s nephew.
** QUICK HITS. Governor Jerry Brown rode the rails today, the high speed rails of China, that is, making the 800-mile journey from Beijing to Shanghai slightly ahead of schedule, in under five hours. … Here Brown is about to link up with his Shanghai motorcade represented by the guy standing on the platform in the photo holding the hand-lettered sign saying “Jerry Brown.” The driver and an onlooker are standing beneath the sign denoting Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, which is the largest railway station in Asia and conveniently located next to the main domestic airport. Which unfortunately is not the main international airport. … Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who led the last California trade and investment mission to China in 2010, will host a live memorial service for his lifelong friend and mentor Joe Weider in Santa Monica at 1 PM on Sunday. The event will be netcast live from this link http://streaming.bodybuilding.com/joe-weider-memorial/.
** THE KOREA CRISIS: WILL EVENTS SIMPLY RUN THEIR COURSE TILL THE END OF “FOAL EAGLE?” At the risk of being overtaken by the sudden whim of a young dictator, or a mistake by players on any side, I wonder if the current crisis with North Korea might just end around the time that Exercise Foal Eagle does.
That’s this year’s annual joint military exercise by the U.S. and South Korea, running from March 1 through April 30.
Just before the beginning of Foal Eagle, designed to practice repelling an invasion by the North Korean army, the world’s fourth largest (behind those of China, the U.S., and India), the dynastic North Korean regime headed by 30-year old Kim Jong-un jacked up tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in much of the rest of the world. Its mid-February test firing of a more advanced nuclear weapon than the Hermit State had previously demonstrated set off major alarm bells in the UN Security Council. Events accelerated from there, as I’ve been discussing recently in my archive of pieces on America’s geopolitical pivot to the Asia-Pacific region.
Despite the fact that North Korea actually has nuclear weapons, more advanced missiles than all but a few nations, one of the world’s largest militaries, and has recently attacked its neighbor South Korea, with which it still has only a truce some 60 years after the Korean War, relatively little attention has been paid to it compared to Iran.
Not that all the attention paid to Iran results in actual knowledge. Mitt Romney, who called Iran the most threatening nation in the world, declared in a presidential debate last year that Iran supports Syria because it’s the Tehran regime’s “route to the sea.” As simple perusal of a map reveals, that would be no. Syria isn’t next to Iran, and Iran has twice as much coastline as California.
North Korea is even more of an enigma with the advent of the younger Kim, who took power in Pyongyang just last year. It may be that he is determined to show he is tough throughout the entire exercise of American and South Korean arms not far from his country’s borders.
His country has a long history of making aggressive moves and even more aggressive sounds, frequently ending up with more international aid as a result even as it continues to advance its weapons programs. This time it seems qualitatively different. The nuclear weapon test in February was more advanced, suggesting a major increase in the miniaturization needed to place a deliverable warhead on a missile. What’s unknown is what range of missile can now accommodate a deliverable North Korean warhead, with lesser levels of miniaturization needed for shorter-range missiles.
While it’s certain that threats to attack the U.S. mainland are still very empty, even if the missile could not be shot down, targets in South Korea or Japan, perhaps even the U.S. base at Guam a couple thousand miles out in the Pacific, might be in range.
Not that North Korea is likely to initiate hostilities with a nuclear strike. That would be suicidal. If there’s anything to suggest that beyond the superheated rhetoric, it hasn’t been reported.
But things could spiral out of control over the next few weeks. The key moment will come if and when a North Korean missile launch occurs.
Shoot-down? Or no shoot-down? Considering that two proud countries in addition to the U.S., South Korea and Japan, countries which would bear the actual brunt if war with North Korea ever came, are very much involved, that’s not a question that can necessarily be decided in Washington.
In the meantime, events roll on.
President Barack Obama had a major Korea cast to his Thursday public schedule. …
** NEW SURVEY: AN EVEN SPLIT BETWEEN ENERGY PRODUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, CLEAR PREFERENCE FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY OVER FOSSIL FUELS. A new Gallup Poll survey indicates that Americans are evenly divided in the event of conflict between the goals of producing energy and protecting the environment.
There is a very sharp partisan split on this, as you might imagine.
But the survey also indicates a major preference for renewable energy resources over fossil fuel resources, by a ratio of 2 to 1.
Americans divide evenly when asked whether the U.S. should prioritize energy production (46%) or environmental protection (45%) when the goals conflict. From 2001 to 2008, Americans consistently came down on the side of the environment. Since 2009, they have been divided or shown a slight preference for energy production — aside from a temporary shift back toward the environment in the wake of the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. …
The trend generally mirrors what Gallup has found when asking about protecting the environment versus promoting economic growth. Both trends showed movement away from the pro-environment stance when the economy went into recession a few years ago, and the environment has yet to regain the majority position even as the economy has improved.
Although Americans overall are divided in the environment vs. energy trade-off, certain subgroups — most notably party and age-based ones — have decided preferences on which should prevail. Democrats want the environment to have a higher priority by a 64% to 28% margin, while Republicans favor energy production by an even larger margin — 71% to 25%.
Younger Americans are most likely to want to give preference to environmental protection, but each older age group shows a successively greater preference for energy production, with Americans older than age 50 coming down on the side of energy. …
Although Americans are divided on whether energy production or environmental protection should have the higher priority, they tend to favor more environmentally friendly ways to address the nation’s energy problems.
Specifically, when asked whether the U.S. should emphasize production of more traditional energy supplies such as oil, coal, and gas or alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power, 59% favor alternative energy, while 31% prefer traditional energy. This roughly two-to-one preference for alternative energy production has been consistent in the three years Gallup has asked this question. …
The gun control debate on Capitol Hill is joined today in the wake of a bipartisan proposal on closing the “gun show loophole” on background checks.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … THE CURIOUS KOREAN CRISIS.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama then met with members of the Financial Services Forum in the Roosevelt Room.
At 9:15 AM Pacific, Obama holds a conference call with more than 100 local elected officials to discuss summer and year-round pathways to youth employment, in the Roosevelt Room.
Then the Korea portion of the president’s public schedule begins.
At 11:10 AM Pacific, Obama posthumously awards the Medal of Honor to Army Chaplain (Captain) Emil J. Kapaun in the East Room. Kapaun, a Catholic priest who is a candidate for sainthood, is being honored for his acts of courage in the early days of the Korean War. His regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division was one of the first units sent from occupation duty in Japan as part of the response to the North Korean invasion in 1950.
Kapaun, who deployed in June 1950 to the Korean peninsula, was captured by North Korean forces in September 1950 and died in a prison camp from the effects of blood clotting and pneumonia on May 23, 1951.
At 11:55 AM Pacific, Obama meets with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the Oval Office. Ban is a former South Korean foreign minister.
No missile launches today on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea has moved mobile IRBMs (intermediate range ballistic missile) in place along the coast for a threatened test launch. The missiles have reportedly been fueled and readied for launch.
The US has positioned anti-missile Navy destroyers and radar systems to protect South Korea and US bases.
The missiles in question may be able to reach US bases in Guam, a few thousand miles away in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
South Korea has moved its military to a high state of readiness. Japan has set up interceptor missiles around Tokyo, vowing to shoot down any missile that threatens Japanese air space.
In happier news for the Obama Administration, the US Senate voted 68 to 31 today to end the latest faux filibuster and allow debate on gun control legislation.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
Vietnamese media picked up on Governor Jerry Brown’s trip to China, especially his shying away from mention of human rights abuses. Vietnam and China are engaged in a tense stand-off, including a shooting incident last month, over the South China Sea, virtually all of which is claimed by China, much to the dismay of its neighbors.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in China.
Brown spoke today on climate change at Tsinghua University, one of China’s leading universities, in Beijing. He later met privately with China’s brand new Premier, Li Keqiang.
Brown began by citing The Analects of Confucius, which he is studying.
Brown quoted the venerable philosopher: “The master said, having studied, to then apply what you’ve learned, is this not a source of pleasure? Having friends come from distant places, is this not a source of enjoyment?”
The university, Brown declared to widespread applause, is the appropriate place for these things to happen, for the pursuit of knowledge is the highest of virtues.
Invoking the image of a needle as prod to discovery and change, Brown noted that the course of human history reached a critical inflection point in the 19th century.
Until the 1800s, as he recounted, humanity didn’t rely on fossil fuels. There were only a billion people on Planet Earth. Then came discoveries and utilizations of coal, oil, natural gas. As with the application of a sharp needle, the prosperity of the world shot up.
But the wonders of a world made possible by the burning of carbon have been matched by its perils. Now the world has reached another inflection point.
“We’re in one world. We’ve got one big problem and we all have to work on it. And what’s beautiful and exciting about climate change is no one group can solve the problem—not the United States, not California, not Japan, not China — we all have to do it,” Brown declared.
“This is a great unifier. This is an imperative where human beings could collaborate.”
Brown then closed as he began, with a brief passage from Confucius: “To go unacknowledged by others without harboring frustration. Is this not the mark of an exemplary person?”
The supportive laughter and applause began then.
“I’ve gone unacknowledged for some time, I’m not frustrated, and I’m sure glad to be here this morning.”
After completing his schedule in Beijing, Brown and company hopped aboard the new high-speed rail for the 800-mile journey to Shanghai.
One thing that is very refreshing, incidentally, about Asia-Pacific geopolitics is the relative absence of religion as a big factor. Confucius, like Buddha, is a philosopher, not a deity. Philosophy can be debated and challenged in ways that religion cannot.
Brown naturally praised Chinese ingenuity, noting that the big push there into renewable energy is making Chinese solar photovoltaics much cheaper. Noting also the large presence of Chinese-Americans in California and Chinese students in California universities, he urged more Chinese technologists to come to California, supporting the push for more visas.
Speaking of ingenuity, today is the 37th anniversary of the launch of the first Apple computer.
The Apple I, designed by Steve Wozniak, went on sale on April 11th, 1976.
** 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.
** 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 $93 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $59 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 $21 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.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said today that North Korea is near “a dangerous line” and that US forces are “prepared to act.”
** QUICK HITS.No missile launches today on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has moved mobile IRBMs (intermediate range ballistic missile) in place along the coast for a threatened test launch. … The US has positioned anti-missile Navy destroyers and radar systems to protect South Korea and US bases. South Korea has moved its military to a high state of readiness. Japan has set up interceptor missiles around Tokyo, vowing to shoot down any missile that threatens Japanese air space. … President Barack Obama’s federal budget proposal, very reminiscent of what he laid two months ago, isn’t igniting much movement in the fiscal impasse. … Governor Jerry Brown’s moves today in Beijing, laid out in detail below as the morning began, are getting a good press reaction in time delay fashion in the US. … Back in California, state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg said that revisions to Prop 13 are off the table while state government adjusts to its new revenue stream. Brown had already signaled that, but I’m sure he prefers not to break out the veto pen when he doesn’t have to.
** NEW SURVEY: MUCH MORE CONFIDENCE IN OBAMA ON ECONOMIC MATTERS THAN IN OTHER LEADERS. A new Gallup Poll survey has good news for President Barack Obama.
Not only has confidence in his economic leadership improved over the past year, he scores much higher than potential rivals do.
In addition, confidence in Democratic congressional leaders is much higher than is confidence in Republican congressional leaders. In fact, confidence in Republican congressional leaders on the economy is near a decade-long low.
As the president issues his proposed new federal budget, Americans are more likely to say they have “a great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence that he (57%) will recommend the right things for the U.S. economy than they do in Democratic (48%) or Republican (39%) leaders in Congress or in Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (42%). …
Americans’ confidence in President Obama’s ability to recommend the right thing for the U.S. economy is up from 50% the past two years, but it remains below his high of 71% in 2009. …
Democrats overwhelmingly have confidence in Obama on the economy, at 90%, while 24% of Republicans do so. Independents are split with 51% expressing a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the president and 47% saying they have only a little or almost no confidence in his economic decision-making.
There is a 10-percentage-point gender gap, with 62% of women and 52% of men saying they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the president on the economy.
Confidence in Democratic Congressional Leaders Up, Republicans Remain at Decade Low
Americans’ confidence in the Democratic leaders in Congress to do the right thing for the economy increased to 48% this year, up from their decade low of 39% in 2012. It is also higher than the 41% in 2011 and 43% in 2010, but is still slightly below the 51% of 2009. Confidence in Democrats was highest in 2001, at 66%.
Confidence in the Republican leaders in Congress was essentially unchanged this year at 39%, compared with 38% last year. This essentially matches Republicans’ previous lows of 37% in 2008 and 38% in 2009. Like their Democratic counterparts, confidence in Republicans was highest in 2001, at 66%. …
The U.S. Navy’s famed fighter jet aerobatics team, the Blue Angels, has canceled its remaining 2013 performances because of federal budget constraints. I’ve loved watching those guys fly since I was a kid at Fleet Week in San Francisco.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Washington.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden received the intelligence and economic briefings in the Oval Office.
Obama then delivered a statement, announcing his federal budget proposal, in the Rose Garden.
He then met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
At 9:30 AM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet for lunch in the Private Dining Room.
At 12:35 PM Pacific, Obama and Biden meet with Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew in the Oval Office.
At 3:30 PM Pacific, Obama hosts Republican members of the US Senate for dinner in the Old Family Dining Room.
Obama’s federal budget proposal, which preemptively calls for cuts to cost of living for Social Security, one of the most popular federal entitlement programs, is drawing some fire from left and right.
His pre-negotiation attempt to cut entitlements isn’t banking him much credit with Republicans, at least so far.
I think we’ve seen this movie.
West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin and Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey are getting ready to announce legislation to close the so-called gun show loophole in which firearms are traded without background checks. As mentioned yesterday, Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid will invoke cloture tomorrow, i.e., move for a 60-vote super-majority vote to close off a potential Republican filibuster of gun control legislation.
In other action, multiple reports have it that a North Korean missile launch — testing new intermediate range ballistic missiles, which can easily hit South Korea and Japan, though certainly not the US and perhaps not US bases in the Pacific — is imminent.
US Pacific Command is reporting that several of these missiles have been moved to the coast in preparation for their potential firing.
Which will raise an interesting question, if and when launch comes.
Shoot-down? Or no shoot-down?
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the North Korean nuclear program, 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. The time on the Korean Peninsula is sixteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
Note to Governor Jerry Brown and First Lady/Special Advisor Anne Gust Brown: Be careful of the chicken. Food supply has been affected in China after government restrictions on live poultry trade in Shanghai. The poultry markets are at the center of an outbreak of avian flu. Nine people have died from the virus and 28 have been infected.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in China.
The time in China, all across what would naturally be several time zones by decree of the revolutionary Communist government in 1949, is GMT plus 8. Which makes it 15 hours ahead of Pacific time.
Brown had some major announcements for Wednesday in Beijing.
Last but decidedly not least, he announced a $1.5 billion Chinese investment in Oakland.
Joining US Ambassador to China Gary Locke and hundreds of American and Chinese business leaders for the announcement at the US Embassy, Brown announced the $1.5 billion Brooklyn Basin deal between China-based Zarsion Holdings Group Co. Ltd. and California-based Signature Development Group.
Brown says the project, set to break ground next year, will create 10,000 jobs and provide for the construction of 3,100 units, 200,000 square feet of retail and commercial space and 30 acres of parks and open space in Oakland, his adopted hometown where he was mayor from 1998 to 2006.
“This massive influx of Chinese investment will put thousands of Californians to work and dramatically improve Oakland’s waterfront,” said Brown.
Brown also referenced a report by the research company Rhodium Group, which indicates that, from 2000 to 2011, Chinese investors funded 165 deals in California worth $1.3 billion, some one-quarter of all Chinese investments in the US during this period.
Which was a rather neat way of claiming bragging rights of having surpassed the last decade’s worth of effort in one fell swoop.
Brown also announced a new students abroad program to send California community college students to China to study the culture and the Mandarin language.
Earlier on Wednesday, Brown announced agreements with the Chinese Minister of Commerce and six provincial governments establishing a formal working group to foster trade and investment opportunities.
After meeting with PRC Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, Brown noted: “While California seems relatively small compared to the vastness of China, the innovation, the creativity of Silicon Valley, our medical advances, the internet and various other technologies make California, I believe, a very valued partner for China. I see the meeting today as just another step in a long history of increasing mutual understanding and collaboration.”
And, taking note of China’s rather dire environmental challenges, Brown also signed an agreement with China’s Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian to strengthen and coordinate efforts to improve air quality.
“Reducing pollution takes great political struggle,” said Brown. “We know in America it’s not easy, so it won’t be easy in Beijing. But to the extent that we can help, we would like to help.”
Brown also met with the American Chamber of Commerce – Beijing and with China’s Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Xu Shaoshi. The NDRC oversees efforts to address climate change and much of the government’s economic strategy.
** MAD MEN: ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL IN A CHANGING CULTURAL LANDSCAPE.Mad Men is back, and I’m glad. Even though the two-part premiere episode wasn’t perfect, it brought some keen acting, sharp dialogue, and stunning visuals. And it brought the show fully into the beginning of the fire that consumed the late 1960s.
For a show that has often, and oddly, seemed hermetically sealed off from the history erupting around it, the start to Mad Men’s Season 6 brought the biggest of the changes, the growing industrial-strength savagery of the Vietnam War, into the twin centers of the show, Don Draper’s eternal existential crisis (well portrayed by the excellent Jon Hamm) and the advertising industry’s eternal quest to sell America what it may very well not need.
Much more on this, with plentiful spoilers, lies ahead. Incidentally, here’s an archive of my pieces on the show, The Mad Men File, beginning in 2009. (I saw the show from the beginning but didn’t write about it at first.)
How was Mad Men’s Season 6 premiere received? On balance, the response seems mixed, though ending up on the positive side of the seesaw. Whether that is up or down depends on your preference, of course. Viewership was strong, near a record, well above that of last season’s finale, an episode which had nearly redeemed what preceded it.
This is a crucial season for Mad Men. Season 5, as I suggested from its very beginning, was down from past seasons in quality. It took awhile for the folks who write full-time about television to stop reflexively praising everything that happened on the show, but by the end of the season — a season marked by fairly arbitrary, hairpin plotting and a series of stunts that seemed more geared as watercooler/twitter bait than organic to the truth of the characters and their situations — many more had come to seriously question the show.
And after winning four straight Emmy Awards as television’s best dramatic series — a record previously matched only by The West Wing and Hill Street Blues — Mad Men lost to a new critical darling, Homeland. (L.A. Law, which hasn’t worn as well, also won four Emmys as best drama, but not consecutively.) Can Mad Men regain the commanding heights it once enjoyed in its final two seasons, of which Season 6 is the penultimate?
It’s not just Homeland giving Mad Men a run as the prestige drama of what many call “The Golden Age of Television.” Among dramas, there’s Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones. And House of Cards has certainly wedged its way into the conversation, not least because of Netflix’s unique distribution model of making an entire season of 13 episodes available all at once, albeit at only one private location.
I quite like House of Cards, not least because it’s about politics. But especially because it is based on one of my favorite classic British miniseries, the original House of Cards in 1990, all about a fictional power struggle for prime minister in the wake of the real Margaret Thatcher’s retirement, something poignantly recalled with her death on Monday. And of course because it stars one of my favorite actors, Kevin Spacey, who had his breakthrough role 25 years ago as the brilliantly psychotic arms dealer Mel Profitt on Wiseguy, in the second of that show’s lengthy “arcs” which prefigured so much of today’s television. Spacey’s Francis Underwood, the Americanized version of Ian Richardson’s more archly amusing Francis Urquhart, isn’t nearly as zesty as his Mel Profitt, who unknowingly employed an undercover CIA special operator who would be very much at home on Homeland, but he isn’t going to flame out, either.
Will House of Cards suffer from its distribution model, which makes it hard to discuss, much less know how to write about, two crucial factors in achieving a critical, if you will, critical mass? You might very well think that; I couldn’t possibly comment.
Much as I love Mad Men, I was rooting for Homeland to win the last Emmy as best drama. Homeland’s Season 1 was that good. With former 24 writers Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon at the helm, the show combined the best elements of 24 at its own Best Drama Emmy-winning peak with the best elements of Britain’s brilliant Spooks, winner of the Bafta for the UK’s best dramatic series. And it did so while avoiding the frequently preposterous plotting which sometimes marred both 24 and Spooks (known in the US by the more PC name of MI-5).
There was just too much firepower for Mad Men to overcome. In protagonist Carrie Mathison, the brilliant, troubled CIA officer who relentlessly tracks down her prey only to find something she did not expect, Claire Danes etched a flawed archetype for the ages. Damian Lewis was also fabulous as the hero Marine-turned-Al Qaeda agent, inviting empathy for a terrorist agenda while suggesting something fundamentally untrustworthy within whichever guise he affected. Small wonder that he won his own best actor award to match hers.
If Homeland continued like that as, in my view, the finest intelligence series ever in an era of intelligence, it would be very difficult for Mad Men to reclaim its throne. But Homeland’s Season 2 opened the door for Mad Men’s return. Though wildly entertaining, it was also frequently preposterous, veering into some of the most outlandish territory occupied by Spooks and 24. Great performances, and I fully expect Claire Danes to continue to dominate the best actress awards, but Homeland, though still terrific, has fallen off its high-wire.
Which is only good news for the hopes of Mad Men’s brilliant control freak creator, Matt Weiner.
Chronologically, the show has only moved ahead from April 1967 at the end of Season 5 to Christmas 1967/New Year’s 1968 at the beginning of Season 6. But there are some big changes in addition to the dramatic presence of Vietnam, mostly affecting the leading women characters.
The men, frequently unknowing pigs that they are, are disproportionately suffering in comparison to the women of Mad Men, who are increasingly coming into their own. …
South Korea has raised its military alert status, with North Korea reportedly getting ready to launch a mid-range missile. Some call it psychological warfare but no one is taking any chances. Japan is deploying interceptor missiles in and around Tokyo.
** CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN THE PACIFIC: NUCLEAR AND MARITIME CONFRONTATIONS. … From my April 4th 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.
** 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 $94 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $60 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 $20 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.
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