Dealing with Vladimir Putin Means Doing Everything We Can Except Something Stupid

When political disagreements involve doing nothing in congress, (or as little as possible) you have political polarization.  As it relates to our current political climate, we can debate the root of it all day long, but it amounts to nothing more than the politicians we elect doing whatever we allow.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is hardly concerned about a president who is not serious about his words.  He watches FOX news just like the rest of us do.  He knows exactly what congress and all of those who oppose this president are saying.  Putin is certain of very little except America’s unwillingness to support the decisions of this president, no matter what those decisions might be.

The common refrain from those who vowed to make Obama a one term president, is that he has not followed up on his warnings against certain nations with consequences, that includes Russia.    

When it came to Syria, it looked for a moment that the president was ready to strike, but congress quickly declared that America’s imminent threat was not involved.  In response, president Obama encouraged congress to vote on the matter, in which they abstained long enough for Russia to intervene and force a deal to be made.

President Obama could do what other presidents have done.  He could have moved on Syria and forced congress to stop him.  Given the characterization of the republican designed Affordable Care Act being  rammed down the throat of America, it makes a lot of sense that he would challenge the resolve of congress instead of adding to his dictatorial image.

Personally, I would have said to hell with congress and done what I believed to be correct, even if FOX news hardly needed another distorted story to help drive their ratings.  President Obama chose political expediency when it comes to Syria, but Barack Obama has always been a political pragmatist who most resembles the republicans that despise him. 

Barack Obama did not fight tooth and nail to save the food stamp cuts or the cancelled unemployment benefits.  Obama did lean far to the right on things like surveillance and the use of drones. Obama did not rush to join black organizations like My Brother’s Keeper when many of those who elected him begged for such support early in his presidency.  He is joining his support to his version of NAFTA with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP which is seen as a clear challenge to American jobs and opposed by most of his party. He is driving down the deficit with his plan to cut the military, but in classic form, republicans are attacking him for cuts that they themselves have proposed.  He had the voting majority to install a single payer insurance plan but decided upon RomneyCare 2.0 instead.

President Barack Obama is a fantastic American.  He is Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King with a side dish of Bill Clinton.  Each of these great American’s, despite their awesome stature, are as humanly flawed as is every president who ever assumed the role.  Rather it be in deed or perspective, no president can make every decision, with such a vast list of them, correctly.

So now the decision on Russia and the Ukraine is at hand……..allegedly.  Whatever he does, Obama will have critics as most presidents do, but there is a right answer to this no matter what the critics declare.

Many will remind you that Bush warned Putin back when he put troops in Georgia without consequence just as we have now done in Syria.  As a result, Putin does not believe there is any consequence to his actions.  

When you raise kids and don’t give them consequence, you may inherit a problem much like Putin is to America right now.  Unlike children, adults, and nations of free adults are not subject to the consequence of a disapproving nation who dislikes your 19^th century diplomacy.  Ukraine fought over trade allegiance and engaged in a 19^th century governmental overthrow which Russia allowed without interruption.  If America can offer a billion dollar loan to the Ukraine without a duly elected government, Russia clearly has a duty  to support their Ukrainian allies (which they did not do during the upheaval) or insure a democratic Ukraine moving forward for the sake of their relationship with that future regime.  Like it or not, this is clearly a matter of Russian  geopolitical, and thus, economic concern.

Sometimes the proper consequence of 19^th century diplomacy is boots to the ground.  Our 21^st century approach may result in future boots on the ground, but it certainly should not begin there.  Absent of such a punitive response, Barack Obama is doing exactly what he can do, which is everything except something stupid.

Socialism .vs. Capitalism. Is this a war or a marriage?

I love to smile inside at times when I think about the years of my early adulthood when I was raising babies and trying to find my way.  At the time, my very dear friend was raising his own babies, so we often spent time together raising our babies and exploring the joy of beer.

John Sherffius is the creator of this.

We were close, close friends from middle school, so our influence on each other is immense.  I can recall how he came to be deeply involved with unions.  As a politically charged young person, I found myself standing outside of a grocery store during a strike and I jumped right in with the workers to fight the good fight.  At the time, I don't think my friend cared much about stuff like that but he joined me anyway.  As we departed I explained to him what I believed about unions then, and what I believe about them now.  Unions dictate work standards for everyone, even those who do not pay the cost for their existence.

Unions rose out of a natural reaction to capitalism run amok.  A great example of the importance of unions is our current insurance debate.  The reason that 85% of the insurance market is employer based insurance is not because employers are so considerate of people, but because companies who did not have unions ran the risk of becoming unionized if they did not move to meet union level standards.  They still do.

As a result of unions in this country, every company tries to stay ahead of employee dissent that could result in a unionization effort.  The rise of unions and the cost of having them does not and did not destroy companies, it just forced them to see the cost of doing business in a broader perspective.  This broader perspective allows 85% of America to currently work for a company that subsidizes each employee in order to pay for the current socialized health insurance program called group insurance.

If companies can justify paying this expense right now (it will go away in 2015 for most ), do you think it will be hard to pay for increased wages when this expense goes away?  Companies take any expense, increased supply cost, increased wages or whatever and treat it like all expenses; as a cost of doing business. That's it.

Most socialism is just a cost of doing business that we disperse among the masses to ease the pain.  Sometimes we call it taxes, other times we call it fee's, but in the end whether its paid out in the form of group insurance or military spending, or food stamps, it is socialism nonetheless.

Socialism demands pragmatism.  Group insurance is pragmatic.  Generally American socialism is not pragmatic but reactionary and therefore expensive as hell. As a result of American socialism, the forces of capitalism and competition have learned to lurk for opportunity to consume  the crumbs and waste from this reactionary beast.  The big crumbs fall from military and healthcare socialism.  Other forms of socialism nip at the edges of our wasteful government but don't consume nearly as much as the big two.

Military waste abroad will be consumed by private security firms and other corporations (have you heard about camp leatherneck). The rest needs to go away to deal with our deficit a bit.  Since war is such a major industry in this world, the military has become an example of socialism and capitalism playing twister. Good luck unraveling those two lovers.  Before the ACA, that's what was happening in healthcare.

In the end, socialism and capitalism are like a husband and wife.  Both compete for power even though they already know who is the boss............s/he is.