Elsewhere

The Levant
So Erdogan is supporting our Kurdish allies in Iraq, where he's not wanted, while killing them in Syria, where he is wanted?  With friends like that...

Yemen
The role the US is playing in Yemen is not quite the same as the role Russia is playing in Syria, but the parallels are too close to ignore.

Venezuela
Thanks to the drop in oil prices and the incompetence of the Maduro government, the class war in Venezuela is heating up; but the US blew its leverage back while Chavez was alive.

Nigeria
Nobody is sure exactly why Boko Haram released 20 of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.  Meanwhile, President Mohammedu Buhari is having marital problems.

The Philippines
Rodrigo Duterte is a prime example of what you get when you elect an insane populist president.  One wonders if Xi Jinping will manage him any better than Obama can.  Not likely.

World Tour

Ukraine
It's getting to look a lot like a Russian win in Ukraine.  The most recent "cease-fire" never even got started, much less held.  There are those in Congress calling for the USofA to arm the Poroshenko Ukrainians, but that would do nothing to end the conflict or bolster the Poroshenko government — all it would do is confirm Putin's narrative that Russia is in conflict with an aggressive West led by the usual enemy (us).  The only remaining sanction that might make a difference is to deny Russian banks access to SWIFT, but that's something of a "nuclear option," and the USofA cannot do it unilaterally.

Libya
It's a mess, best avoided if at all possible, bearing in mind that just because some bunch of international criminals say they're part of Islamic State doesn't mean there's any real coordination.  If the Egyptians want to screw around there, let them, unaided by the USofA.  It's their border, and their citizens, not ours — and we always can be counted on to make things worse.

Nigeria
While the Goodluck Jonathan government is too corrupt and inept to stop Boku Haram, no likely alternatives have presented themselves.  Chad, we're told, is making some progress, and Niger and Cameroon are stirring, but only time will tell.  As long as oil prices remain low, nobody in the West will be bothered to do anything about Africa.

Israel and Iran
Netanyahu continues to agitate for a US military attack on Iran, but even American Jews are starting to have serious doubts about the sanity of Likud policies.  Hopefully, the era of knee-jerk Congressional obedience to AIPAC is ending.  Working cooperatively with Iran should not be any more difficult that working cooperatively with Saudi Arabia or, say, Turkey.  Face it, we don't give a shit about spreading democracy.

Argentina
Let's just hope Cristina Fernandez de Kirshner's government can hold it together.  The bourgeoisie are wavering, but she still has the support of the working classes, and our State Department already is overstretched.  Yes, we're all curious to know who killed the special prosecutor, but we don't need another crisis in Latin America.

Syria and Iraq
If Obama prefers not to use the modifier "Islamic" when referring to Islamic extremists, I suggest he just refer to them as "those shitheads."  Throughout history, various groups have used religion to justify all kinds of awful behaviors, and will continue to do so.  Come to think of it, "those religious shitheads" just may be more to the point.

Annus horribilis: part two (children's edition)

More Gaza

Four little boys went out to play;
Along came a bomber and blew them away.

The news that inspired that couplet was in the Times this morning.  By the time I got home this afternoon, and despite a six-hour cease fire, three more Palestinian children were dead.  Well, when the announced ground invasion begins, one would hope that Israeli troops, from ground level, will better be able to differentiate people who are four feet tall from people who are significantly taller.

The Nigerian Girls

Boko Haram grabbed a whole lot of Nigerian girls from a school up in north-eastern Nigeria.  Rumor has it that most of them have "escaped," but it's hard to say because Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan is not especially "transparent."

Granted, Boko Haram is a lot crazier than most other crazy Islamist groups.  People who get too addicted to their religions always are especially dangerous.

Migrant Kids

I am outraged that people across the United States are protesting having migrant children from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador taking refuge in their communities.  Parents don't send their kids on enormous journeys, with pretty scetchy adults in charge, unless the conditions at home are immanently lethal.  I welcome those children to my neighborhood.  Probably, I could squeeze three or four into my miniscule home for a while.  The dog would love it.

If Obama expedites the extradition of those children to their home countries, my low esteem for him will drop even lower.  As usual, I'm pissed off.