Internationally
In one very quick and adroit move, Putin put himself back into the game as a major international player and Obama was nimble enough to grab the lifeline since it looked like the Senate was not about to back him on Syria. Poison gas suddenly disappeared from the front pages and even after Assad said he had conditions, both Russia and the USA sort of ignored him. For now America is tired of war and tired of interventions, and we’re coming around to the conclusion that the only acceptable end in Syria is if neither side wins.
Domestically
The liberal side of the Democratic Party started flexing its muscle and dug in on Lawrence Summers, who many felt was just too close to the Banking / Financial / Wall Street crowd, and pretty much told the president he was a no-go unless Obama was willing to spend a lot of political capital, which he wasn’t. Besides, Obama is going to need all these Democrats in the knock-down, drag-out fight coming about the budget and the debt ceilings, and Summers was just not worth all the bad blood that fight would have engendered. I don’t see how Obama can refuse to appoint Yellen unless he can find another equally qualified woman he likes better, which is highly improbable. This fight is more than a personality conflict. It’s more basic and deals with what the Fed perceives as its job—protecting the financial sector or protecting the citizens.
The shooting at the Naval Shipyard on the Anacostia River in Washington D.C. was very scary and perhaps a harbinger of things to come. There are a lot of walking wounded back from Iraq and Afghanistan and the V.A. has to do a better job of spotting them and helping them. If he walked into the V.A. and said his chest was tight and he had pain in his left arm, they would have had him in a cardiac evaluation immediately. They need the same kind of instant response to someone who walks in and says he feels suicidal, or murderous or is hearing voices.
In Sacramento
The California Coastal Commission went down to defeat in their bill to give them the authority to fine violators without first having to go to court. They immediately blamed it on a disinformation campaign but that was sheer baloney. The simple truth is that many legislators simply don’t like the California Coastal Commission because they think they’re heavy-handed, self-righteous and often bullies. They’ve also managed to outrage all of the Republicans who think they have no respect for anyone’s property rights, and many coastal cities and counties who have been banged around by the Commission and also the farming and natural resource interests view them as a bunch of over-educated, urban environmental elitists who couldn’t care less about jobs, businesses or farming. Even if the bill had cleared the legislature there was a substantial question whether if the governor would have signed it.
The legislature did manage to pass a bill that will allow limited licenses for the undocumented so they won’t lose their cars to towing and storage fees every time they get caught in a DUI roadblock.
Locally
The City Council is going to be dealing with the highly disputed chain store ordinance Monday night and everyone is waiting to see what the Council will do; pass it, turn it down or handle it the way most politicians handle a hot potato, which is send it back for further study. My guess is if they don’t take some definitive action, there is a ballot initiative coming from the proponents of the ordinance.
Lastly, on the local front I’m happy to report that our solo goose who lives in Legacy Park is doing quite well. Since I still don’t know if the goose is male or female I have arbitrarily named it Georgie, which works either way. There is one small problem: Georgie has discovered that the locals are only too happy to feed it, and thus comes when called. That would be fine except Georgie is overdoing the good life and I notice it getting rounder and rounder. We may have to soon put Georgie on a diet or some hungry coyote is going to cook Georgie’s goose.