Category: International Affairs

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Oh Da Joy

Don’t remember smiling as much as in the past couple of days. Papa Francesco. President Obama giddy in his presence. John Boehner stepped down in emotional tears of relief. In one day, U.S. Government turned on its head. Standing O and Mo Rocca at MSG Mass. Harlem school kids taking selfies as they chanted and sang. Multi-religious cultural core of Pope’s message.

Teacher, too. I’d never heard of Dorothy Day nor Thomas Merton. Until he included them with American icons Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. Now I’ve learned who they are. Evoked the gaucho epic poem Martín Fierro at the U.N. Hadn’t read that since Spanish major in college. The quintessential forefather of Pampas Pastor Bergoglio. Inspirational interlude. Grazie Papa.

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World Collides

As Papa Francisco touches down on U.S. soil for the first time, he’ll almost cross paths with China’s Xi Jinping at the White House and on the Upper East Side. Pope Francis via Cuba. Chairman Xi flying in from Seattle. Old cultures colliding with high tech century. Russia helping us fight ISIS with Syria’s Assad and Iran. Strange alliances. Maybe for the better. New World Order.

Meanwhile, is El Trumpo tapping General Petraeus for his foreign policy team? And as Joe Nocera concludes in today’s New York Times, don’t we all wish Mike Bloomberg had run? I still do. June 4 SideTrek.

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False Idols

Genius journalist Richard Engel reports on the destruction of artifacts in Assyria. Modern iconoclasts’ obliteration of civilization. Bibi invades Congress as his election looms. Netanyahu is not Israel. False premise. Scott Walker likens American union workers to ISIS. Frank Underwood would be a better choice. Streaming!

As our false idols defile the culture on every cover. Kardashians. Meanwhile, American Idol does have lots of talent this season. Bon weekend.

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Worst 2014

Rape of the leaves. Construction next door.
Sochi Olympics. Return of Putin.
Crying Wolfowitz. Right-wing and media fear-mongering.
ISIS. GangWorld.
Ebola. E-bowling.
Malaysia missing airplane obsession.
Ferguson media hype.
Commencement Speech bigots.
Football violence on and off the field.
TV’s Newsroom. Veep.
“Cute cat” videos.
Construction next door.

 

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Gang World

A recruited group of disaffected youth curried by a culture of violence coddled by a familial feeling of acceptance. That’s my definition. Global gangs. Al Qaeda kinda. ISIL definitely. No borders. No rules. Neglected kids confused by lack of identity and structure. Like those in the NFL? Inner city streets? Law enforcement? Blurred lines. A pervasive disease metastasizing.

It starts at home. Absent parenting. Role models condoning bad behavior. Institutional thuggery. Crimes defined as mistakes. Religious jihad guise. Generational danger. How do we wage a war on this? Airstrikes seem superficial.

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crISIS

Or is it? Same critics suing Obama for abusing executive power are calling for him to go to war. Now Lone Ranger good. McCain warning against more home-grown ISIS terrorist converts named McCain. Oops. What strategy does that fit?

Contradictions abound on both sides of the debate. It’s that pesky gray area again. We need bad guys in one country so we can invade it. That was so 20th Century. Should have left the tyrants alone. Krauthammer calls Prez’s foreign policy adolescently naïve. Like Mission Accomplished?

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Flânerie

As an aspiring flâneuse, strolling undetected along the backroads, random thoughts for the weekend. Apologies to Baudelaire.

World Cup. Argentina’s twelfth player. Not fair to have Il Papa silently praying behind the scenes. Did he sway the Dutch coach to leave the tall goalie on the bench? Pazzo. Due dueling Papas Benedict v. Francis for the Final. Ave Maria. Germany does have the best team. We’ll see.

Yay for Jon Voight Emmy nom. Ray Donovan returns Sunday.

Border crisis. 3-year olds bunched into buses by Central American scam-lords. Christian Right says round them up and send them back. Are they less God’s children because they weren’t lucky enough to be born here? It’s not an immigration issue. It’s a question of humanity. Who are we? Beck  most “Christ-like”? Mediaite. Strange bedfellows. Bon weekend, Charles.

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Crying Wolves

It is refreshing to have a President who understands that foreign policy no longer demands a knee-jerk military reaction. Obama comprehends the nuances of geopolitical regions, their diverse and entrenched cultures. Where did Maliki come from? He was living in Iran before he came into power in Iraq under the coveted Bush/Cheney ‘Democracy Doctrine’. Big surprise. He’s not a uniter!

Current polls reflect remnants of neocon fear-mongering. People are being fed the frenzy that post-9/11 terrorists are lurking around every corner. Of course, it could happen again. If it does, Cheney and his McCain, Graham, Kristol hawks will all yell in unison, “We told you so!”  In the meantime, how much more blood and treasure are we to expend? Enough already of crying Wolfowitz.

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Daddy Bag

41 is 90 today. Sky dived. Yay. Bid Daddy had it right. Go into Iraq and get out quick. 43 the Inferior took advice from Neo-Con nuts. Now we are left with al Baghdadi and his ISIS monsters. I say let them fight Al Qaeda to the death. We can save money and lives. Stay away. Who are the good guys anyway? U.S. Army allowed an unstable kid like Bergdahl to serve. Sad for so many.

Speaking of evil. Fargo. Who is worse? Malvo or Lester? I say Lester. Finale next week. Game of Thrones, too. What will we do? U.S. Open Golf at PineHurst. Snooze.

Father’s Day. I have a radical opinion on that. Dads are as important as Moms. Bon weekend.

 

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Gray Matters

Thoughts for a foggy day. PrezO gave a refinement of his foreign policy at West Point yesterday. Everyone on the left and right decries lack of a clear doctrine. Current geopolitical circumstances are such that there is no longer the black v. white, good v. evil of World & Cold Wars of the past. It takes a more nuanced perspective to understand that the the world is gray. Choices between brutal dictators or Al Qaeda are not clear cut. Knee-jerk invasions v. isolationism. ‘Obama doctrine’ lies somewhere in between. It meets the modern reality.

Snowden. Traitor or Hero? As I listened to him last night, I went back and forth. Again, more gray area than right or wrong. At some points, he could have come across as arrogant with delusions of grandeur. At others, he made the case for saving Americans from potential dangers when information is held in nefarious hands. Imagine a leader that sorts data to alienate your ethnic, religious, political group. Chilling. So…  It takes more thinking to come to a cloudy conclusion.