 Poking The Bear
As the week ends, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in DC is going on - or as Jonathan Chait called it this year, "the Republican 'Hunger Games'."
We did think for half a second about covering that insane event today, but we realized we'd already discussed clowns and cowards yesterday. We also don't think anyone needs more hate in their lives. We'll let you read the news accounts of media folks who had to be there in our expanded edition later today, if that's something you feel you absolutely must do.
What might actually help you today is a bit more clarity, especially on the fast moving story surrounding Ukraine, the Crimean region of Ukraine, and Russia.
On Thursday, President Obama and Russian President Putin spent another hour on the phone, continuing to discuss diplomatic solutions. Both the United States and the European Union have begun leveling sanctions on Russia for their invasion. For what it's worth, those sanctions seem to be primarily leveled at some of the wealthier, more powerful members of the Russian oligarchy. If anyone can have influence over Vladimir Putin, they may be able to.
The fact is, however, any sanctions the West makes towards Russia can't really be all that effective. Anyone who says otherwise - as the right-wing media has been doing for much of this week - is ill-informed and doesn't really know what they're talking about...
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