Obama's Not Carter -- He's Eisenhower (James Traub) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"And he's prepared to let Putin win the battle, knowing that the West will win the war. ... Eisenhower understood that bullies often cannot be deterred without threatening a response that would be catastrophic for one and all. This is especially the case when the aggressor cares much more about the victim than we do."
Russia Has Already Lost the War (Chrystia Freeland) from the New York Times
"... the new revolution is enjoying a prolonged honeymoon, thanks to Mr. Putin, whose intervention in Ukrainian foreign and trade policy provoked the uprising in the first place, and whose invasion has, paradoxically, increased its chance of long-term success."
Obama's Leverage Over Putin: This president has more nonmilitary options than his predecessors had for responding to Moscow's aggression (George Condon Jr.) from National Journal
"President Obama is not the first American president to be confronted by provocations and military actions from Moscow. All 12 presidents since World War II have faced such challenges. But Obama is one of the first to have a broad range of potentially biting nonmilitary responses to employ—a measure of how much Russia has been integrated into the world's financial system since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War."
Why Russia Can’t Afford Another Cold War (James Stewart) from the New York Times
"Under the autocratic grip of President Vladimir Putin, Russia may be a democracy in name only, but the gyrations of the Moscow stock exchange provided a minute-by-minute referendum on his military and diplomatic actions."
I'm actually quite skeptical of Stewart's larger argument here. For all his years in power, Putin has shown no meaningful interest in Russia's economy -- why should there be any change now? Moreover, if you look at what has been motivating Putin's actions lately, those motives involve visceral emotions: grievance, humiliation, payback, rage. In the face of these kind of primal feelings, the stock market can go screw itself.
Crimea: Putin vs. Reality (Timothy Snyder) from the New York Review of Books
"Propaganda is thus not a flawed description, but a script for action. If we consider Putin’s propaganda in these Soviet terms, we see that the invasion of Crimea was not a reaction to an actual threat, but rather an attempt to activate a threat so that violence would erupt that would change the world."
Putin’s Golden Dilemma (Amy Knight) from the New York Review of Books
"As Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gnap observed recently in the Russian paper Novaya gazeta: “When in power, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to make billions in government business.” Such revelations are doubtless a source of unease for Putin and his associates, who have long faced similar allegations by their Russian critics. ... he example of Ukraine could rouse Russian citizens out of their passivity, especially if the Ukrainian crisis causes the value of the ruble to continue its decline and the Russian economy starts to founder, as many economists are now predicting."
Why the Cold War isn’t back (Todd Purdum) from Politico
"Already the Russian stock market and currency have tumbled. Administration officials believe that Putin’s move – in response to the ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Russian leader – was fundamentally defensive, not offensive, and that the “clash of titans” trope in the American media is mostly hype."
Ukraine Is Not About Us and It's Not Ours to Lose (Robert Golan-Vilella) from the National Interest
"Underlying all of this is one of the most common errors in U.S. commentary on international relations: the casual assumption that everything that happens anywhere in the world is ultimately about America, and that when anything bad happens anywhere, someone in Washington must ultimately be to blame."
Putin's Pique (David Remnick) from the New Yorker
"Putin is an unabashed authoritarian. He masks the Pharaonic enrichment of his political circle by projecting an austere image of shrewd bluster and manly bravado. He is also the sum of his resentments."
The Black Box of China’s Military (Isaac Stone Fish) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Beijing is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on defense, but no one quite knows what they're up to."
A Growing Crisis in Post-Chavez Venezuela (Patrick Christy) from Real Clear World
"Since nationwide demonstrations began a month ago, clashes between Venezuelan security forces and protestors have resulted so far in at least 18 deaths and over 250 injuries. Chavez's socialist experiment has left Venezuela's economy and society in shambles."
Millennial Paradoxes (Ed Kilgore) from the Democratic Strategist
"Aside from the fact that Millennials are for obvious reasons less inclined to worry about health coverage than older cohorts, this finding suggests that Millennials may be disproportionately represented in the ranks of those who object to Obamacare from the left."
Court Orders Kansas Legislature to Spend More on Schools from the New York Times
"Kansas’s highest court ruled on Friday that funding disparities between school districts violated the state Constitution, and ordered the Legislature to spend more than $125 million to bridge the gap, setting the stage for a messy budget battle in the Capitol this year. ... the unanimous court decision Friday would seem to leave some Republican lawmakers in Kansas unsettled because it orders them, by July 1, to appropriate tens of millions of dollars in payments to poorer districts to make the school system more equitable."
Lessons of the Week from Texas to CPAC (Erick Erickson) from Redstate.com
"Even the old conservatives are ready to move on from the old faces, but the old faces are bitterly clinging to the levers of power. It is pronounced in the hallways when the crowd stops to chat. It is pronounced in the applause lines. It is in the quiet hum of the older, longer time attendees and the buzz of the young. They have grown tired of the old guard."
Is the Republican Party in Danger of Dying Out? (Taegan Goddard) from The Week
"A new Pew Research survey finds a demographic trend in the United States that threatens to push the Republican Party into permanent minority status unless it changes quickly."
The GOP's Identity Crisis (Paul J. Saunders) from the National Interest
"... if the two groups continue to fight rather than merging, time favors the Republican establishment. Eventually, Tea Party groups will need not only rhetoric but also practical accomplishments to maintain the support of their donors and voters, and they will need them even more so if they hope to win sufficient power to determine or heavily influence the Republican Party’s agenda, strategy and tactics over time."
At CPAC, Slim Pickings in ‘Minority Outreach’ (Jamelle Bouie) from the Daily Beast
"For all the urgency in the 2012 post-mortem’s directive to reach out to minority voters, the GOP’s vanguard still isn’t offering them anything new—not that anyone’s listening anyway."
At CPAC, a Grand Old Free-for-All (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"The notion of “civil war,” often used to describe the clash between the Republican establishment and the tea party, implies a conflict with identifiable sides. In reality, the GOP condition is more of a
free-for-all. The annual CPAC gathering, conservatism’s trade show, provides a snapshot of the anarchy:..."
Rand Paul Cruises to Victory in CPAC Straw Poll (Scott Conroy) from Real Clear Politics
"A likely 2016 White House contender, Paul's 31 percent was nearly three times as much support as the next nearest vote getter, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 11 percent."
Clinton Super PAC ‘Ready For Hillary’ Gets Readier (Mark Halperin) from Time Magazine
"Hillary Clinton's shadow presidential campaign is shifting into overdrive with the Super PAC's website getting a makeover, complete with two elements that symbolize how her backers are borrowing as much as they can from the Obama campaigns."
Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton in 2016? (Taegan Goddard) from The Week
"When asked about Clinton, 25 percent of all Americans — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — say they definitely would support Clinton if she made a White House bid, while 32 percent said they definitely wouldn’t support her. However, when asked about Bush, just 6 percent said they would back him, while a stunning 48 percent said they wouldn’t support him under any circumstances."
WOW. These are VERY sobering numbers for moderate GOPers still looking for a serious standard bearer for '16. As regular readers know, barring a complete Clinton campaign meltdown, I don't see any GOP candidate out there who stands a snowball's chance against the Dems. Jeb was the only exception I could see, someone who could seriously challenge the Clintons. If these numbers hold up (and I'm slightly skeptical of them), a third time for the Bush family may NOT be the charm!
The Sociopathic 1 Percent: The Driving Force at the Heart of the Tea Party (Paul Rosenberg) from Salon
"In their warped view of society, only the individual exists -- with no social relations, shared history and culture."
Wingnuts Baffled by Inequality: Why They’re Totally Confused about How to Talk About It (Elias Isquith) from Salon
"From decrying the problem to praising it to ignoring it, the right is totally lost on how to talk to the 99 percent."
Newsmax CEO Wants To Combat Fox News With Conservative Cable Channel from Talking Points Memo
"A Bloomberg Businessweek profile published Thursday revealed Newsmax.com founder and CEO Christopher Ruddy's plans to expand beyond his highly-trafficked website and influential magazine into television with a 24-hour cable news channel called NewsmaxTV -- described as a "kinder, gentler Fox" -- launching as early as June."
INTERNET NUGGET!!
How to DISAPPEAR from the internet: Nine-step guide helps people vanish without a trace and then surf anonymously from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Hosting firm created a graphic explaining how to disappear from the web. The nine steps include deactivating accounts and setting up fake profiles.
LGBT HISTORY NUGGET!!
Out, and Serving from the New York Times
"Images and interviews attest to the struggles and triumphs, the dignities and indignities, of gay and lesbian service members."
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