They’re calling it the “cool war,” and not because there’s anything nifty about it. The Ukraine standoff has brought back something close to the Cold War. The United States sanctions and the Europeans are built so that Vladimir Putin has room to turn around without losing too much face. As Michael Hirsh writes in the National Journal: “The United States and Russia have both crossed a Rubicon in the Ukraine crisis, and Washington must now confront the likelihood that if the standoff continues, it will dramatically alter relations on a much larger map than Eastern Europe, inviting Russian recalcitrance in crisis zones as far afield as East Asia, Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan.”
Dana Milbank writes that Obama is trying to hit Putin in the chronies. Can that really work? Via the Washington Post.
The latest from Malaysia: Flight 370’s path was apparently altered by programming an onboard computer, further implicating the pilot or first officer and further complicating the mystery. Via the New York Times.
James Fallows writes of one fanciful theory on Flight 370 and one theory that might actually make sense. Via the Atlantic.
Chris Cillizza — The Washington Post’s famed Fix — says that Republicans now have the edge in the battle for the Senate. Democrats are starting to panic, which isn’t exactly a shock.
The Obamacare replacement – which still hasn’t been revealed, but may be close — would never actually work, say the experts. Maybe that’s why they still haven’t revealed it. Via NPR.
Who’s on the Supreme Court farm team? Jeffrey Toobin offers up some potential candidates. Via the New Yorker.
[ Image via Jonathan Hoyt. ]
[…] Gold Corp., you're not just betting on gold prices. you're betting on the outcome of the great geopolitical standoff between the West and Vladimir Putin's Russia, which may or many not evolve into a new Cold […]