Notations From the Grid (Weekly Edition): Random Thoughts On Russia & Iran

Vladimir Putin has won another term as Russia's President.   As we went to press with this edition of Notations, He was in Turkey as he helped to launch construction of a new Nuclear Power Plant, facilitated the sale of Anti-Aircraft Missiles and hold a summit on Syria as it is increasingly clear that Bashar Asad has won.    The Summit between him, President Edrogan and President Rouhani of Iran in Ankara will be discussing the Syria War--as President Trump noted that The US will be leaving Syria soon--unless Saudi Arabia decides to pay for it.   It must be noted that Iran spent an estimated 17 Billion Dollars with some Two Thousand Iranian Deaths along with over 10,000 Afghani and Pakistanis who were recruited to fight in Syria.

As we reflected upon the challenges of the week, what we found interesting was reports about how the United States had advised Russia that it could replace the expelled Russian Diplomats.   The team at CityLab put together this historical perspective on where Russians could and could not go as the debate goes on--and as the Mueller Investigation continues:

(Library of Congress)

As 60 Russian officials get expelled from the United States this week, consider this 1957 map produced by the State Department, via the Library of Congress. It shows how, at that time, about a third of the U.S. was off limits to Russian visitors. Among the red patches marking banned travel, the green circles mark the cities where Soviet and Eastern bloc citizens could legally go. So why could Cold War travelers go to Nashville but not Memphis? National Geographic has a theory that the seemingly arbitrary “red lines” may have been a way to hide the conditions of Jim Crow. 

Notations On Our World (Special Edition): Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr #MLK50

Today is the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.        In his honor, our team chose his Beyond Vietnam Speech (The Text available here) as a tribute to his revolutionary spirit and struggle for Social Justice:

Notations On Our World (Special Mid-Week Edition): Random Thoughts On @Disney; @SkyNews; #Homelessness & Other Thoughts

One of the success stories in America is what Walt Disney Began that Bob Iger, the current CEO, has built upon.    He has been at the forefront of transformation of Disney as we wanted to share this courtesy of the team at Goldman Sachs--a worthwhile 23 minutes as we await the further transformation and consolidation of Media around the World.   This is also as we showcased the controversy over Sinclair in our Tuesday Edition of Notations Earlier this week:

Above (L to R): David Solomon of Goldman Sachs and Bob Iger of The Walt Disney Company (Please click on the link on the text courtesy of the team at Goldman Sachs to listen to this 23 minute interview)  Since becoming chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, Bob Iger has transformed the company into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. In a recent Talks at GS session moderated by Goldman Sachs President and co-COO David Solomon, Iger discussed his rise at the company, the constantly changing world of entertainment and the importance of keeping diversity and inclusion at the forefront of Disney's work. When discussing the making of the movie "Black Panther," Iger said, "I felt that it was time for Marvel's storytelling to much better reflect the world we were doing business in. I'm a big believer in that -- whether you call it diversity or inclusion. But the bottom line is that doing so is good for commerce. The world is obviously multi-colored, multi-natured, and multifaceted. The more we infuse that into our stories the better off we are." As we went to press, the Financial Times reported that Disney has made an offer to buy SkyNews.    Our Live Broadcast Pod on our Visions and Education Properties features live feed of SkyNews on Demand and we welcome this development: Although Disney is a success story,  Easter Week-End 2018 also saw a very disturbing report by the Orange County Register as the Sunday Edition of Easter Week-End featured the story of a Disneyland worker that died in her car: We hope Disney and its' CEO are attentive to the plight of their teams.   What is also of note is that the challenge of Disney Workers is part of a broader problem that Orange County has had to contend with as Orange County Supervisors have left it to the 34 Cities along with the Federal Judge to deal with homelessness with this On the Current "snapshot" of Homeless Shelters:   Watch video