It’s been downright chill in New York City today and I wish I had worn a wool sweater instead of a cotton one. I am heading this evening up to Hudson; Alana, my friend who is the owner of my favorite bistro, The Red Dot, is having a special Japanese meal at the restaurant and asked me if I could be there for it. Hard to say no to such a good friend so I am up tonight and back tomorrow.
When I get to the cottage, I may have to turn on the heat, as it will be chiller there than it is in the city. If I weren’t coming back to the city in the morning, there’d be a Franklin stove fire in my future.
What is not in the future for Sepp Blatter, head of FIFA, is more time as head of FIFA. I subscribe to VICE News and its news of the resignation popped up on the upper right corner of my screen while I was on a conference call. The paper trail is moving closer to him in regards to the corruption scandal. His right hand man, Jerome Valcke, apparently was a recipient of a letter that links him to the alleged $10,000,000 bribe for the World Cup to be held in South Africa.
Bruce Jenner has now officially become Caitlyn Jenner, doing so with a splash in a Vanity Fair spread. She gained a million twitter followers more quickly than Obama did when he launched @potus. As someone who remembers her when she was Bruce and the triumphant Olympian, I can only imagine what a journey this has been for her. So public a life, so private a journey.
Last night on the Yangtze River, a river cruise ship named the Eastern Star or Oriental Star, depending on how you translate its Chinese name, was sailing through a storm when high winds struck and the ship capsized. So far, only fourteen people have been found alive of the 456 aboard. One survivor, a cruise director, floated fifty miles downriver before rescue.
There was no distress signal and the first realization of the disaster was when a few survivors reached shore and raised the cry.
Most of the passengers were elderly Chinese on holiday.
The Patriot Act, with some revisions, was resuscitated on the Hill today and will go to President Obama for his signature, which he has pledged to do. I have some mixed feelings about this. I have friends who rant that the Patriot Act has turned us into a police state while others are equally adamant that it is absolutely necessary for protection.
The process has elevated Rand Paul who worked against it and weakened Mitch McConnell, who thought it should be passed without revisions. Somewhere along the line he miscalculated the misgivings of his fellow Senators.
To me, whatever you think of Snowden, he revealed some unsavory aspects to our spying that have left, at least me, uncomfortable.
The situation in Syria is deteriorating. IS has begun to encroach upon Aleppo and non-IS affiliated rebels are accusing Assad of using his air force to support IS against them. Which in the convoluted realities of Syria today might actually be true.
A meeting of anti-IS countries concluded a meeting with Secretary of State Kerry attending by video link. Everyone agreed more needs to be done but didn’t seem to come up with any concrete steps beyond muddling along in the same way they currently are.
Which is what we’re doing, muddling along through one of the great crises of our time.
The EU seems to be muddling along through the Greek crisis, with more meetings scheduled for tomorrow. The EU financial ministers can’t seem to get their arms around the political realities on the ground in Greece. Greece is living through a Great Depression experience and is desperate, which is why Tsipras was so overwhelmingly elected. He promised to change that and Greece needs some positive changes.
In a startling rewrite to biology books, the endangered smalltooth sawfish, has found away to avoid extinction. They have now seemed to have mastered “virgin births.” Seen occasionally in animals in captivity, it is not entirely unknown but what happens to men when women can experience “virgin births?”
On the train going up north, it has been a frustrating ride. North of where we were, a Metro North train had become disabled and we waited thirty minutes for the track to be cleared. I will probably arrive in time for dessert. But so it goes when you travel the rails, in America.
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From New York 06 16 15 Vladimir the Saint and Vladimir the President…
June 16, 2015Just moments ago, the sun broke through the cloud cover that has weighted the city down all day. According to the weather reports, we were to be having thunderstorms about now but, nay, nay, we have sun. But will it last? I hope so. It’s been a grey week that hasn’t done much for building happy spirits among New Yorkers.
I started the day with a delightful breakfast with a young entrepreneur I met a few years ago at a Producer’s Guild event. He has started a company called Kite, which connects large corporations with start-ups that can help solve their marketing problems. Fascinating.
Then I came to the office and worked on a whole variety of things, before sitting down to think about today’s Letter. Before I started work, though, I happened on a VICE News short documentary featuring Simon Ostrovsky, one of their correspondents who was kidnapped, detained and released by pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine. While in custody, he was beaten and accused of being a spy. There was an international outcry at his disappearance and three days after he had been pulled from his car, he was released, without explanation. He still continues to cover the Ukrainian conflict.
Today’s piece showed him following a Russian soldier through social media, making a very good case that the Russian soldier had been in eastern Ukraine. He posted selfies from a variety of places that could be identified in Ukraine. Russian soldiers seem to have a penchant for posting selfies on VK, the Russian Facebook.
Yet, according to Putin, there are no Russian soldiers in Ukraine, not now or ever.
The young soldier denied that he was there when contacted on the phone by Simon though the pictures were pretty convincing.
We all live in a world of lies and illusions though it seems they are a little deeper when we are around Vladimir Putin.
A very tall statue of St. Vladimir, the patron saint of Russia, is being put up in Moscow and it has the anti-Putin forces striving to get it stopped. History has taught us that is not likely to happen. He will be very tall and will be set on the tallest hill in Moscow, looking down on the city. Vladimir the Saint was a Russian warlord who converted to Christianity and then told everyone he ruled that they were going to convert, too. Or else, I suspect.
The Russian Orthodox Church has a very cozy relationship with the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin, who was once a Communist and therefore, theoretically, should not have believed in God, has found a relationship with the Church a very convenient thing. They are strong supporters of his conservative views on things like homosexuality. And Putin has seen to it that there are now “anti-blasphemy” laws on the books that squelch any critics of Russian Orthodoxy.
Ah, how often in history have churches served politics and politics, churches.
Interestingly, St. Vladimir hailed from what is now Ukraine. Perhaps a connection to Russia that Putin is underscoring?
It is the 1000th anniversary of Vladimir’s death and the living Vladimir is going to squeeze every ounce out of it that he can for his own political purposes.
No one has said that Vladimir Putin is stupid. He is frightening but not stupid. He is now replacing older nukes with newer, smarter nukes that can elude anti-missile systems. Do I hear the drumbeat of an arms race?
I hope not but fear so. In a brighter note,
Pope Francis, the rock star Pope is apparently coming out in an upcoming encyclical as against climate change deniers. Parts of it have been leaked as the Vatican reminds all that it is a work in progress. But if what is leaked is true, Pope Francis comes down hard on the side of climate change being created by human actions.
You go, Francis!
Tags:Kiev, Kite, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Pope Francis, Russia, Russian Orthodox Church, Simon Ostrovsky, St. Vladimir, The Russian Facebook, Ukraine, VICE News, VK, Vladimir Putin
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