It seems that a lot of this administration's business is handled by assertive women:
- Victoria Nuland is making a "hash" of diplomacy surrounding unrest in the Ukraine. She didn't know that phone calls are intercepted?
– Samantha Power our Irish immigrant ambassador to the UN wants to fight with the russian ambassador over "Pussy Riot." Say what?
– Susan Rice, a hyper agressive person, is willing to "duke it out" with the Israelis and The Lobby over pathetic John Kerry. Hey! Perhaps I like this part. On the other hand, she sent Kerry to Cairo a while back to tell the generals that that they had better behave. They handed him his hat.
– Valerie Jarrett is evidently a "mother figure" to the WH women and POTUS himself.
– And then there are the divorce rumors. I don't know what to make of that.
All in all, these women have a lot of power. Let's hope their reason prevails in the use of that power. The "Pussy Riot" thing worries me. All the world is not a school yard. pl
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26079957
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/samantha-power-pussy-riot-103201.html?ml=al_1
http://observer.com/2014/02/susan-rice-forbids-israel-from-criticizing-kerry/
In general I agree, and have been very unimpressed with these women. However, I have long thought that Jarrett may be one of the linchpins behind Obama reaching out to Iran.
From here Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Jarrett
Jarrett was born in Shiraz, Iran, to African-American parents James E. Bowman and Barbara Taylor Bowman. Her father, a pathologist and geneticist, ran a hospital for children in Shiraz in 1956, as part of a program where American physicians and agricultural experts sought to help communitize developing countries’ health and farming efforts. When she was five, the family moved to London for one year, later moving to Chicago in 1963.
“Schoolmarms and Scolds of the US, assemble”, it seems.
“Victoria Nuland is making a “hash” of diplomacy surrounding unrest in the Ukraine. She didn’t know that phone calls are intercepted?”
she must believe nsa is the only entity spying / collecting phone info on every one!!!
just a simple case of sitting on too high of a chair and not gauging the depth. a good example of recent/current US FP establishment.
Just a lack of adults in this administration.
What concerns me is that most women who make it into leadership positions in the Western world have an additional agenda; – to prove that they are as good or better than men in that role.
To put that another way, you don’t see men in any heterosexual milieu I can think of trying to “do better than a woman”.
I heard this same additional agenda surface just last night at a sailing function, girls only, at which the speaker trotted out just this agenda, not just to enjoy the sport of sailing and encourage other females to do likewise, but to prove that they can do it better than men.
In the rarefied reaches of Government the stress loads are high enough as it is without carrying the weight of this additional agenda.
That is the strange paradox that seems to be true so often about women in politics/policy making.
We often dislike policymakers who are too macho, needless combative/loud, and gung ho–“too male” if you will–to figure out what’s going on and act deftly. One might think women might be less macho and gung ho, but, in practice, women who get so far up the ladder are usually far more eager to do the stupid things that often get men in trouble.
The Russians, they have computers too?
Seriously, the lack of understanding of the outside world, even among the elite, in US is often breathtaking. It may be good for the morale to chant “we are number one” but too many people seem to go on believing our own propaganda blithely.
Walrus,
In America we are in the midst of a “War on Women”. (A slogan – and agenda – created by the political left for the purpose of both social engineering, political fund raising and axe grinding.) Qualifications for leadership? Who needs those when you have Ivy League credentials and the right chromosomes?
it seems that the US has spent more than 5 billion dollars to democratize Ukraine according to MS Nuland at US Ukraine Foundation event Dec. 13 2013
her 8+ minute speech can be accessed at
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.ca/
PL. Barack Obama – A Ladies’ Man
Pat, this is excellent standup comedy commentary. Besides being a most excellent shot, ham prep master, prolific author, and all around honorable soldier and a gentleman.
I do think in the proper venue, your material would have me rolling on the floor!!
Col.,
I completely agree with you on the ‘pussy riot’ comments by Amb. Power. I don’t think she has any idea who she’s dealing with when she supports these ladies. The big tip off should be their western name.
I enjoyed the quotes from Politico. Amb. Churkin mocked her brilliantly.
Reminds me of a cat fight. Anything that’s not substantive gets their dander up. Gay rights in Russia is the latest example.
Before they go yammering about Russia, they should check out attitudes in Israel, in most allied nations, and in most states. People in these places must shake their heads at how badly the State Department’s public diplomacy has gone off the rails, since most of them are more sympathetic to Russia’s position than to the US position.
This is how these women build solidarity with allies? What a joke!
“The pussy riot thing” ??? What does that mean?
Duran
One of the links deals with this. pl
All! Are any neo-cons female?
Walrus! I believe the Atlantic Solo Sailing speed record is held by a woman!
With regards Pussy Riot, or, I suppose, ex-Pussy Rioters (the darlings of the Obama administration have been kicked out of their own band in disgrace, apparently), and for that matter, various other grandiose pronouncements by the Obama administration concerning foreign policy, I’m just stunned at how deluded they are about about other parts of the world (or, indeed, parts of their own country that don’t adore them automatically). Follow the link below for a perspective along this line:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/02/07/snow_blind
Norbert M Salamon
IMO there is no way that leader Putin will allow Ukraine into the EU or any other nonsense that Nuland and her ilk may wish to perpetrate on the Russian Near Abroad. That five billion could have been well spent on infrastructure rehabilitation & new project right here in These United States .
WRC
I equate R2P proponents as neocons , in that context I feel that Samantha Powers , & Susan Rice are clear & present danger – ie – more misbegotten military interventions overseas . When I think of Samantha Powers I think of the Clean Break bullsh-=-t that “Prime Minister” Cheney gave us back in the previous administration .
All,
Some exhibits re Victoria Nuland:
From the 13 December speech in which she explained how since 1991 the U.S. had invested $5bn. in promoting democracy in the Ukraine.
‘People of all ages, of all classes, of all walks of life are taking ownership of their future and coming out into the streets to demand a European future. They’re doing so peacefully, with great courage, and enormous personal restraint.’
(See http://geneva.usmission.gov/2013/12/17/assistant-secretary-nuland-speaks-at-u-s-ukraine-foundation-conference/ )
Shortly before this, Nuland was photographed meeting the principal opposition leaders. From right to left, Oleg Tyagnibok, Arseny Yatsenyuk, and Vitaly Klitschko.
(See http://ca.news.yahoo.com/photos/u-assistant-secretary-state-nuland-ukranian-opposition-leaders-photo-112142919.html )
In the list of ‘2012 Top Ten Anti-Semitic/Anti-Israel Slurs’ published by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, No. 5 opens:
‘UKRAINE’S ANTI-SEMITIC “SVOBODA” (FREEDOM) PARTY
‘OLEG TYAGNIBOK LEADER OF THE SVOBODA PARTY
‘In recent elections the radical right party won 41 seats in the Ukrainian Parliament (10.44% of the popular vote). Tyagnibok has called for purges of the approximately 400,000 Jews and other minorities living in Ukraine and has demanded that Ukraine be liberated from what he calls, the “Muscovite Jewish Mafia.”’
(See http://www.wiesenthal.com/atf/cf/%7B54d385e6-f1b9-4e9f-8e94-890c3e6dd277%7D/TT_2012_3.PDF )
All neocons are warmongers, but not all warmongers are neocons. I believe R2P is a neoliberal position. Perhaps I’m wrong on the second sentence, but not on the first.
NSM and Alba Etie,
Wonder how Nuland et al. will deal with the far-right group Pravy Sektor.
http://world.time.com/2014/02/04/ukraine-dmitri-yarosh-kiev/
As far as Jeff Feltman being the MC of the whole UN/US propping up the three opposition leaders with the exclusion of Pravy Sektor, is the end game Syria and the Middle East?
Ukraine maintains key naval bases used by the Russian navy during its deployments last September to oppose US plans for an attack on Syria.
All,
Another graphic image of Tyagnibok is at
http://gwplondon.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/oleg-tyanhybok.jpg
What’s really strange is the contrasting styles between the women and the black men at the peak of power. The women try to outdo the males in aggression. The blacks–Obama, Clarence Thomas, Eric Holder–seem to need to show how deferential they can be. So far, Obama has the fewest vetoes of any President in 150 years (except Garfield, who only served 6.5 months). And Obama has the fewest prosecutions of prominent lawbreakers in memory.
So I suppose it makes sense for Obama to staff his foreign policy desk with emasculating females, who can act aggressively where he can’t.
If that’s the strategy, he could use a few angry women on the domestic side, too, something he most respectfully refuses to do.
It does stagger me, admittedly after many years here, that FP brainiacs, so obsessed with Cubas and Venuzulas can’t grasp the Russian Near Abroad. Notwithstanding the amount of blood shed over it. Even I, a bleeder, wistful onetime avid R2P’er, Canadian where there is a very strong Ukrainian expat presence must admit the naivete or wilful blindness which springs eternal must be tempered with, in this case, specifically geography, in lieu of reality generally.
I do miss mention of MS Clinton in this respect, for she was a primary official of the first Obama term – whose positive accomplishments [aside from speeches] was IMO rather negative world wide
Alba Etie:
Being of Hungarian education until 15, am well versed in USSR/Russia history – as history was a compulsory subject starting from Hungary to Rome/Greece/China/Mideast early civilizations, to Europe and the world.
You are correct Ukraine will stay in Russia’s sphere of interest come h**l or high water without regard to uneducated [at least in Russian history] officials’ wet dreams
Colonel,
The one unifying theme of America’s 21st century leadership is not sex or even ideology, it is hubris. There is absolutely no concern for the consequences of their actions. Like all of the entitled, they leave a mess in their wake and never look back.
Look at the consequences of the quest for regime change in Syria, Ukraine or Egypt. It has not benefited of the people, it only increases the wealth and power of the Elite. The fundamental fact of a Holy War is that it never ends and keeps exploding along ethnic and religious boundaries.
Muslims flee Christian militias in Central African Republic:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/tens-of-thousands-of-muslims-flee-christian-militias-in-central-african-republic/2014/02/07/5a1adbb2-9032-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html
If you asked America’s leaders to a man and woman, they would deny we are on a Crusade; “Just killing bad guys”.
NMS
Interesting point about HC, is she just an opportunist or is there really an R2P heart beating inside her suit jacket? pl
Interesting observation, although the way Obama, at least, has been dealing with domestic issues seem to have been passive aggressive (or, aggressive passive, really) than “deferential”: he doesn’t do much, always offers to “compromise,” but always manages to slip in a few barbs placed at just the “right” places to rub a lot of people (usually his opponents, but not always) wrong way. Not exactly “deferential”: in fact, it creates the opposite impression, that he is being combative when he is taking little or no action of substance (the bruhaha over “bypassing Congress” would be a glaring recent example). If anything, it seems to poison the environment: the “aggressive” part makes his opponents distrustful of him and the “passive” part disappoints his supporters. This seems to be a strategy of a self-important but lightweight political novice to me.
Turcopolier
Regarding where Obama got his votes, I agree: A Ladies’ Man.
However, regarding the foreign policy experts he sends overseas, I can see that Obama sends men and women. And many of them seem to be similarly well qualified.
Quote:
When hotel magnate George Tsunis, Obama’s nominee for Oslo, met with the Senate last month, he made clear that he didn’t know that Norway was a constitutional monarchy and wrongly stated that one of the ruling coalition political parties was a hate-spewing “fringe element.” Another of the president’s picks, Colleen Bell, who is headed to Budapest, could not answer questions about the United States’ strategic interests in Hungary.
Source: Politico, 7-2-14: Why Does America Send So Many Stupid, Unqualified Hacks Overseas?
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/02/us-ambassador-picks-103242.html
But I wouldn’t think it would be much different, if Romney would be president, the guy, who said Syria was so important because Syria is Iran’s route to the sea.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2012/oct/23/romney-gaffe-syria-iran-route-to-sea
So I guess there is some deeper problem with the system in the US.
Bill H
my point was that whether neoliberal Wilsonian intervention or neocon intervention the end result is the same . Or to pararphrase Kerensky – ‘ the difference between dog sh–t & cat sh–t “Same for the R2P ‘s –
The beaver
Ms Nuland is delusional so is her husband as is all the Kagan clan .
Respectfully, that’s only four women – surely not many in this day and age? In fact the paucity of women in Obama’s counsel has been a source of comment since the 2008 campaign. Some articles on the subject:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2012/oct/17/obamas-record-mixed-hiring-women/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/us/politics/under-obama-a-skew-toward-male-appointees.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/us/politics/under-obama-little-progress-on-high-level-jobs-for-women.html
The recent divorce rumors stem from a thinly sourced tabloid item. The Obamas have already acknowledged that their marriage hit a rough patch when their union was about ten years old. Hardly unusual, I should imagine.
kao_hsien_chih,
Great piece. Thanks very much for link.
Stephanie
Prevarication. You are commended for your loyalty to your hero, but these are four of the very most senior people in the foreign policy establishment and they are closely grouped around Obama where he put them as his primary foreign policy team. Kerry and Hagel count for little compared to them in terms of real influence. And then you can look at his SCOTUS appointments, ambassadors and cabinet picks like Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sibelius, and many other senior appointments. To insist that Obama has not been favorable to women is merely to voice political feminism as driving force in your thinking. pl
One point about R2P from one of its architects, Ramesh Thakur. The current abuse by those across the political divide of R2P do not get into the details of what was actually agreed, ie. that any action required a very high threshold to be crossed and agreed by member states to the UN. What is occurring is an attempt by a mix of wanna be’s tis to use their own definition of R2P to create the basis for interventions in cases that meet no real interest of the US or other member states. I’m not trying to make a judgment on R2P itself, but rater am stating that the current debate and use of the term R2P has gone well beyond what was agreed. An excerpt from one of Thakur’s pieces (Libya and the Responsibility to Protect: Between Opportunistic Humanitarianism and Value-Free Pragmatism) below:
“The unanimous endorsement of R2P by the largest ever collection of world
leaders at the UN summit in 2005 was historic, for it spoke to the
fundamental purposes of the UN and responded to a critical challenge of the
21st century. Some 150 world leaders tightened the application of R2P to
four atrocity crimes: war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes
against humanity. They affirmed that states have the primary responsibility
to protect all people within their territorial jurisdiction but that if they
manifestly failed to do so, owing to incapacity, unwillingness or complicity in
the crimes, then the international community, acting through the UN Security
Council, would take timely and decisive action to implement the international
responsibility to protect.12 Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon then refined the
principle further in the language of three pillars: Pillar One as the state’s own
responsibility; Pillar Two as international assistance to strengthen state
capacity to implement R2P obligations; and Pillar Three as coercive
international action, including measures not involving the use of force under
Article 41 of the United Nations Charter (for example economic sanctions,
arms embargoes, and asset freezes) and, ultimately, military force under
Article 42.1.”
“Obama, Clarence Thomas, Eric Holder–seem to need to show how deferential they can be.”
Ahahahaa. Are you serious? Obama can’t have a speech without scolding whoever he’s talking to. Holder is ridiculously corrupt and hip deep in using the DoJ as a racial grievance weapon.
The ability of white liberals to lie to themselves forever astounds.
We somehow managed to avoid war in Europe with Russia when we had adults at the helm. Now we’ve got a bunch of Affirmative Action hires who can’t wait to kick off WWIII due to some damn fool thing in the Ukraine.
I can’t imagine how some of you Cold War old hands feel watching this embarrassing display.
Regarding the Pussy Riot group- they made a huge mistake in their demonstration at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow- Russians, even if they were not Orthodox, or even believers, took great offense at that stunt. That cathedral has great cultural significance for the Russ, and Pussy Riot lost a lot of support in Russia. For Power to champion them in the wake of that fiasco is stunning. And a bit unsettling.
Thanks Alba Etie!
ALL!
Extract from Wikipedia:
Frances Perkins (born Fannie Coralie Perkins; April 10, 1880 – May 14, 1965) was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition. She and Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes were the only original members of the Roosevelt cabinet to remain in office for his entire presidency.
During her term as Secretary of Labor, Perkins championed many aspects of the New Deal, including the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration and its successor the Federal Works Agency, and the labor portion of the National Industrial Recovery Act. With the Social Security Act she established unemployment benefits, pensions for the many uncovered elderly Americans, and welfare for the poorest Americans. She pushed to reduce workplace accidents and helped craft laws against child labor. Through the Fair Labor Standards Act, she established the first minimum wage and overtime laws for American workers, and defined the standard forty-hour work week. She formed governmental policy for working with labor unions and helped to alleviate strikes by way of the United States Conciliation Service, Perkins resisted having American women be drafted to serve the military in World War II so that they could enter the civilian workforce in greatly expanded numbers.
kao_hsien_chih,
Re ‘Pussy Riot’:
From a letter written by Tolokonnikova from prison last year:
‘Borrowing Nietzsche’s definition, we are the children of Dionysus, sailing in a barrel and not recognising any authority… We are the rebels asking for the storm, and believing that truth is only to be found in an endless search. If the “World Spirit” touches you, do not expect that it will be painless.’
(http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/15/pussy-riot-nadezhda-tolokonnikova-slavoj-zizek …)
This is a reversion to ideas which were commonplace in sections of the European intelligentsia before 1914. A counter-tradition argued that the aspiration towards ‘absolute freedom’ led naturally to anarchy, tyranny and terror. In a Russian variant of this tradition, a pivotal text is Dostoevsky’s legend of the Grand Inquisitor.
When recently Putin quoted the religious philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev saying that conservatism does not stall society from evolving, but ‘prevents it from falling backward into chaotic darkness and the state of primitive man’, he was identifying with this tradition.
One may dismiss this identification as simply cynical, if one wishes. But an inability to see how many Russians, after having endured rather a lot of ‘storm’ in the twentieth century, prefer Putin to Tolikonnikova seems to indicate a certain lack of imagination.
Walrus, KHC,
On the topic of US women at the top trying to out-macho men:
A recent report in Bloomberg dealt with the rise of many Indians to CEO positions in top US companies. The article concluded that the qualities that led to their success were “empathy, humility, patience and an ability to dream” – most of them eminently ‘womanly’ qualities!
http://tinyurl.com/nqecuhz
ALL! I should have added that almost a majority of Cabinet Secretaries in my 34 years of federal service [67-99], male or female had almost no clue at their jobs. Some might ask why? After enactment of the Budget Control Act of 1949 the Secretaries largely lost any independence and power to OMB [the Office of Management & Budget] and the greatly expanded staff of the Executive Offices of the WH!
The best Secretary I ever served under was Carla Hills, Secretary HUD. under President Ford.
Power, real power, is largely now in OMB and WH staff, both largely corrupt and operating out of sight of Congress and the interested public but not the lobbyists!
ALL! No doubt in a minority but still believe HC will not run! Why? BILL! And a Republican Senate after January 2015 [and House also]!
But if HC and Bill run they have a fundamental anti-war instinct! Why? Their childhood at Yale! But no one will be to the left of them in the DEMS and primaries as anti-war IMO!
Well that’s the thing. The whole liberally appealing notion of a uniformly applied and acted upon R2P is so grandiose an aspiration that one must ask how an admin insider presumably aware of some facts and resources can be seen as anything but a situational opportunist when they trot it out in a specific case.
Which I see just now The Virginian appears to be addressing.
Yes, how could it be otherwise given who would actually being actualizing any R2P, or many other things, both voted and vetoed to no R2P or other resolved effect.
Well yeah, but has he seen an episode of Lilyhammer?
Confident that Russia will not require war to deal with the Ukraine.
Some hyperbole involved, but more and more it seems like the first and second questions US foreign affairs asks itself is “Is it good for the Jews?” followed immediately by “Is it good for the gays?”
Perhaps I should note that one of my links was from The Washington Times, not known as a liberal organ. Obama’s never been any great hero of mine. I like some things he’s done, others not so much. I’m also no great admirer of Power or Rice.
This White House is known for playing foreign policy very close to the vest, leaving cabinet members out of the inner circle. Kerry isn’t at the heart of the decisionmaking process, but neither was Clinton. When Obama made his decision to go to Congress on Syria, he consulted with his male chief of staff and none of the women you mention (and just as well, I’d say).
Looking at the numbers, Obama is about even with Bill Clinton in appointing women, no better, no worse. George W. Bush lagged a bit behind both of them, but his aide Karen Hughes was the most influential female adviser to a President to date. Both of Obama’s political campaigns were noted for the paucity of women in influential positions, apart from Jarrett and the candidate’s wife.
Stephanie
“When Obama made his decision to go to Congress on Syria, he consulted with his male chief of staff and none of the women you mention.” That’s right. He knew that these bloodthirsty mommies wanted war. pl
Great. Faux intellectual wannabe nihilists quoting Nietzsche. Are these what would pass for democratic activists these days? There was someone somewhere (I cannot remember who or where, though) who snidely remarked that the first modern “color” revolution was the Brown revolution, somewhere around 1920s central Europe, just that nobody wants to take credit for that one. I’m increasingly inclined to believe that that snarky observer was right.
I’d imagine that’d be comparable to what’d happen if the Chinese Communist Party decided to champion the rights of flag burners in US. Even if I were ACLU, I would not want to be associated with those clowns. Are the administration people even aware what they look like to Russians when they say the things that they say?
US foreign policy held captive by a bunch of five feet nothing menopausal women who’ve never served in a firing line ready to go to war based off “feelings”.
What a damn mess.
Esteemed FBA, aren’t “empathy, humility, patience and an ability to dream” also qualities of most successful predators? For “humility” read “effacement” or “stealth.” Local guy used to say, “you have to think like a salmon to catch one.”
Tyler, as opposed to GW’s gut, the sharp intelligence of the neocons and the experience of two SecDefs taking us into war?
Seems to me there are much more significant factors kicking off unwise military adventures than the gender and age of gonads of the people in power.
The worst feature of all of this is the absence of any positive programme – just war and more war and more confrontation across multiple countries and regions with no end in sight.
LeeG
That works if you think women and men as groups are the same in reactions to such situations. IMO the neocon idiots reacted with typical largely undifferentiated male hostility. OTOH IMO the R2P gals are truly motivated by a desire to protect all the world. It is hard to say which attitude is more dangerous. pl
Yeah cause I was a fan of the Jewish foreign policy cabal running the show during the Bush era. This reflexive “b-b-b-but Bush” reflex some of you have is tiresome.
Obama’s foreign policy is just an extension of Bush’s – those idiots really though Pashtun elders were going to listen to a bunch of scolds nag them into letting girls attend school. Insanity! Now we’ve got the same idiots who’ve repackaged “spreading democracy” as R2P. Hecuva job there, Vicky.
But Babak, when the US doesn’t confront something, anything, and shows any other face than using force, that’s weakness, and you know … Munich 1939 … Holocaust … Churchill.
PL, as groups I don’t think they react the same but what we have here are institutions more than homogenous groups defined by sex. Whether it’s blood thirsty neocons, mommies, puppies or what have you pulling the strings what is dangerous is the presumption our intervention in and of itself is a solution.
Don’t forget Syria since the logrolling continues.