Meet up with Elizabeth Warren and Al Franken

Get your tickets to the Humphrey-Mondale dinner here: http://humphreymondaledinner.com/

Hey, all you Minnesotans and any other interested parties, guess who's coming to town on March 29th? Well, I'll be, if it isn't Elizabeth Warren joining Al Franken at the annual Humphrey-Mondale dinner!  And if you're not lucky enough to be a Minnesotan and enjoy our fine winters here, you might win a trip to the big gala event. Check out Warren's letter that hit my inbox this a.m.:

Dear Virginia,

Would you like to meet up on March 29th?

It won’t be just the two of us – you could bring a friend along, too. And my friend Al Franken will be there -- along with a room full of the most passionate, fun-loving, ready-to-win-in-2014 Democrats.

It’s the annual Humphrey-Mondale Dinner, and I’m told it’s the biggest night on the calendar for progressives in Minnesota.

Click here to make a contribution to help Al win this year, and you’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win!

I’m looking forward to a great night -- but I’m not just coming to Minnesota for fun. We have work to do to make sure Al gets to continue standing up to Wall Street, pushing for a fair minimum wage, and fighting for middle class families in Washington.

That’s what I’m going to be talking about in Minnesota: taking on powerful special interests and leveling the playing field so every kid has a chance to succeed.

When it comes to fighting for progressive values in the Senate, I can’t do it alone. I need senators like Al with me. And that means I need all of you to stand with him.

Click here to help Al reach his $250,000 March goal, and you’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win a trip to meet with Al and me in Minnesota on March 29!

Make no mistake: The powerful special interests will spend whatever it takes to defeat Al this November. I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he has the resources to fight back. Are you with me?

Thanks for doing your part to help. And I hope to see you in Minnesota on the 29th!

Elizabeth Warren

P.S.: Al’s campaign is covering travel and accommodations for the winner and his or her guest. And that winner could be you! Click here to contribute, and you’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win.

Obama's reward and punishment strategy for resolving the Ukraine crisis

David Ignatius, associate editor and columnist at the Washington Post, offers an excellent analysis of Obama's strategy in response to Vladimir Putin's precipitation of the crisis in Ukraine. Reading Ignatius's commentary, however, must cause any rational adult to wonder at the necessity for the reward and punishment routine that seems required  to resolve international conflicts without resorting to all out war. And we're forced to ask ourselves, why can't prominent world leaders in the 21st century engage in mutually respectful communication to promote peace and justice throughout our shared planet?

That would require a level of maturity and wisdom the leaders of the world's superpowers have evidently not as yet reached.

Ignatius writes:

Since the Ukraine crisis began, Obama administration officials have talked about pushing Russia toward the "offramp" and de-escalation. That's the best diplomatic outcome, but it will require an unlikely public reversal by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The premise of the administration's approach is that Putin will decide that he made a mistake by seizing the Crimean region of Ukraine and, as he faces ever-greater costs, will negotiate a face-saving compromise, concluding that Russia's interests are better served by a return to the status quo

The exit path, as envisioned by the White House, seeks to address Russian concerns without undermining the new Ukrainian government. To answer Putin's complaints about the supposed mistreatment of Russian-speakers, international monitors have arrived in Crimea. But Russia must now work with the transitional government in Kiev and support elections to choose a successor to President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled last month. Finally, the Russians must return to their military bases in Crimea
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It's a lot for Putin to swallow and so far, he has refused. Russian troops remain in control in Crimea, and Moscow appears to back the upcoming Crimean referendum to break away from Ukraine and join Russia. But even Putin, with his ex-KGB man's bravado, doesn't appear eager for all-out war in Ukraine
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Obama on Thursday added pressure for Putin to stand down. The White House announced visa restrictions and a structure for targeted sanctions against Russians and their allies who are threatening Ukraine's sovereignty. Since no individuals or companies are yet named, the sanctions gun is unloaded, for now. The message to Putin was that the further he moves to annex Crimea, the more he risks economic damage to himself and friends, and to Russia itself.

Read more: 

Mindfully meditating on the Ukraine crisis – well, why not?

Kerry says Russia 'hiding hand behind falsehoods."

It’s disorienting to read Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, The Art of Communicating, while out of the corner of my mind following the back and forth between U.S. and Russian officials over the Ukraine crisis.

On the one hand, Nhat Hanh advises deep listening and sensitivity to the suffering of the other; on the other hand the escalating threats between two world superpowers are reminiscent of cold war rhetoric.

I grew up in that era and such exchanges bring back the chilling threat of a nuclear holocaust. I kind of wish these U.S. and Russian officials would form a mindfulness meditation group like mine and read together The Art of Communicating. It couldn’t hurt.

From the U.S.

 

"We are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine," Obama told reporters in Washington.

"The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine."

Any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be "deeply destabilizing," he said.

From Russia

Russia said on Tuesday that it would retaliate if the United States imposed sanctions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine.

"We will have to respond," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement. "As always in such situations, provoked by rash and irresponsible actions by Washington, we stress: this is not our choice."

"We have frequently explained to the Americans ... why unilateral sanctions do not fit the standards of civilised relations between states," Lukashevich said.

In the meantime, the Guardian’s Shaun Walker reports from Belbek airbase in Crimea:

It may be that the three rapid warning volleys fired into the air at Belbek air base on Tuesday morning are the closest Russia's military manoeuvres in Crimea ever come to actual clashes.

The Russian troops surrounding Ukrainian bases have given a number of ultimatums for soldiers to give up their weapons or defect, but when they have not been met nothing has happened.

At Belbek, outside Sevastopol, the Russians took control over much of the airfield several days ago, but on Tuesday the Ukrainian troops gave their own ultimatum, demanding to be given access to the weapons storage facilities on the base. They marched towards the Russians, unarmed and carrying the Ukrainian flag and a Soviet World War II flag, some of them singing the national anthem.

The Russians fired warning shots and screamed that if they advanced any further the Ukrainians would be shot in the legs. The Ukrainians halted, and gave the Russians until 2pm to let them pass. After another brief standoff at that time, with the Russians again pointing their guns at the Ukrainians, they again turned round.

Read more:

Extinction of the red wolf detrimental to all species

A recent email from Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of Defenders of Wildlife, reminds us that the extinction of even one endangered species is detrimental to all species and yes, we human beings are dependent for our survival on the health of the global ecology.

Dear Virginia,

Fewer than 100 red wolves remain in the wild.

And if we don’t act soon they will continue to be shot and killed.

It’s why we’re in court, fighting with all we’ve got. And it’s why I need your help today!

Your urgent donation will help Defenders save the red wolf,and protect other imperiled species.

In the past year alone, 14 red wolves have met untimely deaths in the North Carolina woodlands where they are making their last stand. The most recent victim – a radio-collared wolf found shot to death only last month – is the seventh to die from bullet wounds.

And the bloodshed could escalate dramatically if North Carolina state officials continue to permit hunting for coyotes in red wolves’ tiny habitat – including hunting with spotlights at night. Smaller than gray wolves, these wolves are barely larger than coyotes, and share coyotes’ coloring.

It’s hard to distinguish between a coyote and a red wolf under ideal conditions. At night, it’s all but impossible.

Defenders’ legal team is fighting to stop coyote hunting in red wolf territory. A legal ruling is expected in the coming months.

For nearly 67 years, Defenders of Wildlife has been America’s leading force for protecting wolves and other endangered wildlife.

We are only as strong as our supporters – people just like you.

America’s red wolves are making their last stand. Won’t you stand with them?

Sincerely,

Jamie Rappaport Clark

What?!! Grouchy Minneostans?!!

Courtesy of Mpls. Star- Tribune.

So what did you expect me to blog about today, other than the weather? For cripe's sake,  I'm a Minnesotan, and  another snowstorm is on its way to these parts in the next 24 hours. Sir Paul Douglas, our favorite meteorologist in the northland, reports as follows:

Many Minnesotans were already grouchy about last year's abbreviated summer, now this.

Here, let me cheer you up. A Blizzard Warning is posted just south of the Twin Cities Thursday. A plowable snowfall is expected, maybe as much as 2-4" in the metro, with heavier 6"+ amounts east of the St. Croix. An even bigger concern is 25-40 mph winds, capable of blowing/drifting, especially from Mankato and La Crosse to Eau Claire. If you plan on driving south/east of MSP Thursday into early Friday expect treacherous travel.

The Twin Cities metro is in a Winter Storm Warning, but latest guidance still keeps the heaviest snowfall amounts to our east. I suspect travel conditions will get worse as the day goes on tomorrow, with the worst conditions east of St. Paul Thursday night into early Friday.

By the way, I got caught out on the highway the other day in heavy snow. As usual someone was tailgating me on the exit ramp when my car started to slide back and forth. I credit mindfulness meditation for keeping me calm in this situation: I did not panic or over correct. I glanced in my rearview mirror and noted the tailgater had fallen back. My front right tire gained traction on the edge of the ramp, and I straightened my vehicle out. Despite poor visibility, I made it safely home.

Wouldn't you think by now that Minnesotans would know how to drive in poor weather conditions and would forgo the hazardous practice of tailgating a driver on icy pavement?

"The wondrous diversity of mindfulness practitioners"

Image courtesy of YouTube via Huffington Post.

In her piece at the Huffington Post the other day addressing "the mindfulness revolution," Carolyn Grigoire is obviously annoyed by Time Magazine's recent cover using a "beautiful, white, blond woman" to represent mindfulness practitioners.

Grigoire writes:

2014 has been called the "year of mindful living," and talk of a mindful revolution seems to be everywhere from Davos to Silicon Valley. Most recently, mindfulness was the subject of a controversial cover of TIME Magazine.

TIME's "Mindful Revolution" cover in January stirred up debate among the online mindfulness community, in part for featuring a beautiful, white blonde woman meditating on the cover. As some commentators pointed out, this wasn't the first time that the magazine has portrayed mindfulness this way: Its last cover on the "science of meditation" also featured an image of a beautiful white model.

"It's one thing to feature a young, fertile white girl on the cover of TIME and promote it as 'mindfulness,'" wrote Joanna Piacenza, web manager of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, in a HuffPost Religion blog post. "It's another to do it twice over the course of a decade."

It's undeniable that there is a mindful revolution going on, and that more people than ever before are embracing the well-documented physical and mental health benefits of meditation. But unfortunately, a homogenous representation of mindfulness practices isn't uncommon in the media -- especially in the case of yoga, which is often depicted by a thin white woman with a "Gwyneth Paltrow body." But the image of the serene, young white woman closing her eyes and breathing deeply doesn't come close to telling the whole story of how mindfulness is beginning to transform lives.

Despite the often-exclusionary media representation of mindfulness, the "mindful revolution" is spreading everywhere.

Read more:

Democratic women in the Senate: "It's time to raise the minimum wage"

A letter from Elizabeth Warren on the importance of raising the minimum wage:

Virginia, When I was in junior high, my daddy had a heart attack. The medical bills piled up, and we lost our family station wagon. So my mother did what she had to do: She went to work answering the phones at Sears. The job paid only minimum wage, but it was enough to make sure we could keep our home. If minimum wage had kept up with productivity gains since that time, it would be $22 an hour today. But it didn't – and today millions of hard-working moms and dads work full-time and still live in poverty. No one should work full-time and live below the poverty line. That's why the Democratic women of the Senate have joined together to say it plain: It's time to raise the minimum wage. Please stand with us now, and urge Congress to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. To me (and probably you), raising the minimum wage is a no-brainer. We know that if hard-working families have money in their pockets they will be able to help grow the economy. Why should people work two or three jobs and still struggle to make ends meet? Why should people who work full-time have to count on food stamps to feed their families? This is the answer: Raising the minimum wage would cut into the profits of those who have already made it, and they have an army of lawyers and an army of lobbyists to make certain that the system stays rigged in their favor. Powerful interests might need to be dragged kicking and screaming to raise the minimum wage, but I'm going to keep fighting – and so are the rest of the Democratic women in the United States Senate. Please stand with the Democratic women of the Senate now – and urge Congress to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. When I was growing up, full-time work would keep your family out of poverty. Now, the game is rigged against working families. Raising the minimum wage is one way we can start to level the playing field. Change like this is hard, and I can't guarantee the success of our efforts. But I know this: If you don't fight, you can't win. So let's fight. Thank you for being a part of this, Elizabeth