Daily Archives: 12/19/2014

(Community Matters) This fun. Hat Tip: tweet from cousin Dave Tomlinson, a soon-to-be-published writer.

http://raconteur.net/infographics/the-worlds-greatest-storyteller

(Community Matters)  Pres Obama’s response to Russia in Ukraine is looking pretty deft these days.

We’ve got to inoculate ourselves against the neocon & military industrial complex spin. I’m noticing lots of conservative, especially neocon pundits launching their attacks on the Pres with quick citations of foreign policy failures as a given. Question the assumptions on which they launch their supposed analysis. Look at the slow and steady. In Ukraine, realize we would never have sent in troops. Pres O has rallied Europe (against their own short term interests) and imposed surgical sanctions which have the ruble spinning. In Syria, the red line was a mistake and what a great recovery with chemical weapons disarmament. You had neocons screeching that we should better arm the rebels, literally standing with some who have become ISIS. The President & everyone else remains cautious and mostly distrustful of Iran, yet we are finally in substantive, ever-so-slightly hopeful, negotiations re: nuclear stand down. Cuba: well, finally . . . . after 50+ years we’re gonna try something else – bold, strong & finally leadership.

AP: Putin: West wants to defang, declaw Russian bear

BBC: Manufacturers face ‘bloodbath’ in Russia, says Renault Nissan boss

Matthew Yglesias: Obama’s foreign policy isn’t very exciting, but it is working