Obama, The Dem Establishment, & the Politics of Denial

Obama, The Dem Establishment, & the Politics of Denial

“Sometimes I wonder whether I was 10 or 20 years too early,” Obama said.

How Trump’s Election Shook Obama: ‘What if We Were Wrong?’ – NY Times

"It is an ironic fact that the president who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his soaring disarmament rhetoric is the same president who has laid out $1 trillion plan to modernize every aspect of the U.S. nuclear arsenal over the next 30 years," said Matthew Bunn…

PolitiFact Sheet: Military spending under Obama and Congress 

By J.M. Hamilton (6-10-2018)

It’s summertime.  Life is brief & must be enjoyed, so let’s keep this one short & to the point.

Quick quiz.  Since 1980, Reagan forward, which US President is responsible for the following:

Ø During his presidency was an ardent defender of free trade, globalism, and the resulting offshoring of US labor by US multinationals?

Ø Expanded the US’ never ending wars to include Syria, Libya, returned to Iraq, and perpetuated the war in Afghanistan?

Ø Adopted neoliberal economic policies (aka laissez faire), while M&A and industry consolidation continued and grew under his watch?

Ø Bailed out the Wall St. banks w/ TRILLIONS, after the 2008 financial collapse, w/ a host of fiscal - and via the Fed - monetary policies & programs (w/ zero strings attached, or caveats & conditions that could have mitigated the impact of the crisis upon homeowners and the American public during the Great Recession).  In short, this POTUS bailed out the banks & left the American people on their own.

Ø Like any good Republican, the national debt spiraled out of control under his watch (in fairness, he inherited a mess, but did not take advantage of the catastrophe).

Ø Expanded the Police & Surveillance state under his administration.  Cuddled up w/ the private sector ministers of the Surveillance State: Silicon Valley, Wall St. Banks, MIC contractors, and Private Equity firms.

Ø Chewed whistleblowers in two, persecuted the honest, while letting multimillionaire/billionaire Wall St. thugs walk (after destroying the national economy).

Ø Exported a record number of illegal immigrants back to their home country.

Ø This POTUS was very late to the dance on gay marriage acceptance.

Ø Extrajudicial killings and a drone campaign expanded & thrived under this POTUS’ watch.

Ø Adopted a right-wing medical program, from the Heritage Foundation, attempting to provide privatized medical care for the uninsured, w/out reining in healthcare monopolies, cartels, and specials interests (which predictably, resulted in failure, via spiraling healthcare premiums).

Is JMH being provocative?  I sure hope so… that’s one of my goals in writing this bimonthly piece. 

Damn!  This President sounds positively right-wing. 

Could it be Reagan… No, military grade drones weren’t available yet (at least as presently used), and he was intelligent enough to avoid engaging US military forces in perennial war.

Could it be… let’s see, Bush I (HW)?  No, the former CIA Director was far smarter than his son.  He, actually, had respect for US troops, and pulled the nation out of the first Gulf War, after a quick & decisive victory. (By the way, the words "quick" and "decisive" are no longer in the DOD's lexicon.)

Speaking of which, how about Bush II?  No again.  Bush (W) had a soft spot for illegals (and inexpensive labor), and wanted a general amnesty.  Moreover, some members of the Bush family intermarried, and come from Hispanic patrimony.

Well who could this POTUS be… who is this uber Republican?  Perhaps, after repeal of the 22nd Amendment, this individual could replace POTUS Trump, if he goes down in flames?

Well the Republican is none other than POTUS Obama:  Super-Hawk, Neoliberal, Globalist, and proud sponsor of the US Police/Surveillance State (who just happened to send a record number of illegal immigrants - & presumably some refugees – back to the malaise, South of the border), et al.

My point in writing this piece is twofold.

One, we do, indeed, live in a one party state.

And two, the Democratic establishment still lives in denial. 

The Dem establishment will do anything, point to any shiny object –--- including, but not limited to, Saudi & Russian interference in the 2016 election (which does need to be investigated to conclusion), & the criminal enterprise that has become the Republican Party (which, yes, it’s true, is the party of lackeys) –--- to distract the public from the fact that their GOP-Lite, Clintonista, & Dem establishment policies (US Chamber policies!) failed a great many Americans.

The Dem establishment still lives in denial.  Hence, no hard push for campaign finance reform.  Hence, the very recent rollback of bank rules & regulations, voted for by Senate Dems.  And no, or very few, Dems pushing back against Mr. Trump’s expanded war in Syria, and his administration’s loving embrace and support for Middle East despots (because the Dems - & the US foreign policy establishment - have been supporting these very same dictatorships & policies for decades).

Instead of taking a hard look at themselves & seeking out real reforms… the Dem establishment trots out many of the same old tired tropes: Whites are misogynist & racist, and you know, Obama was our first black President.

Yes indeed, some whites are misogynist & racist, and some whites also voted for Obama & Trump.  This is what happens when people become desperate, despondent, and lose all Hope. 

They either die or become radical.

And yes, it’s also true, our first black Republican POTUS did nearly everything the banks, the US Chamber, multinationals, the MIC, and the monopolies asked for… very much to the detriment of the US economy, labor market, sound fiscal policy, and tax base. (Take a look at the man’s speaking engagements, post-presidency.)

All of this is to say, dear readers, is that JMH would be a hypocrite if I did not acknowledge our country has a significant problem w/ homophobia, misogyny, and racism.  

But JMH, and apparently a great many Dems, would also be in denial if we didn’t acknowledge the role Democratic establishment policies played in their nationwide sweep out of: state legislatures, governors' mansions, the US Congress, and most recently, the White House.

It’s time for the Dem establishment to stop living in denial; it’s time for the Dem establishment to begin supporting real democratic, economic, & foreign policy reforms. 

And, in particular, listen carefully, and adopt the Sanders/Warren wing of the party.  Locking out third party candidates from Democratic primaries, crushing grassroots campaigns, and continuing to rule - via a swamp-down approach - is a sure recipe for disaster. 

Sanders/Warren are the party's future, not the US Chamber.

It’s time to give the people a real choice, if our two party political system is to last.  The GOP establishment is a proven failure (hence, Trump)…   so why – unless instructed by the billionaire class/the donor class – would the Dem establishment continue GOP policies?

No wonder the United States has one of the West’s lowest voter participation rates. 

Who benefits from that? 

POTUS Obama didn’t arrive two decades too early.  It’s just that his administration held in place policies that were two decades too old.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2018

The Limits of a Pay to Play Foreign Policy

The Limits of a Pay to Play Foreign Policy

WASHINGTON — Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. One was an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation. Another was an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes. The third was a Republican donor with a controversial past in the Middle East as a private security contractor.

The meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the Trump team, and it forged relationships between the men and Trump insiders that would develop over the coming months — past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in office, according to several people with knowledge of their encounters.

Erik Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the princes who led Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father win election as president. The social media specialist, Joel Zamel, extolled his company’s ability to give an edge to a political campaign; by that time, the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump.

The company, which employed several Israeli former intelligence officers, specialized in collecting information and shaping opinion through social media.

Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election --- NY Times.

By J.M. Hamilton (5-28-2018)

Just when we thought it couldn't possibly get any worse, that our current administration is deep in bed w/ Russia, Russian oligarchs, and Putin... comes word from the NY Times, that Team Trump met w/ Gulf State emissaries on the eve of the 2016 election. 

Characters, such as the mercenary Erik Prince (aka Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos' brother), George Nader (representing the interests of Saudi and UAE princes), and Joe Zamel (a social media specialist, whose claim to fame appears to be manipulating voters & elections), met w/ Donald Trump Jr. w/in Trump Tower.  The story goes on to say that Donald Jr. responded "approvingly" of the plan put forth.  Moreover, Mr. Zamel was paid up to $2,000,000, post-election, by Mr. Nader (for what services are as of yet, unclear).

It goes w/out saying, it's against the law for foreign governments to involve themselves in US elections (hence the ongoing Mueller investigation).  But we would be naive - given the power of the US & how corrupt the domestic electoral process has become - to believe foreign governments aren't involved in this country's elections.  For that matter, US multinationals - many w/ balance sheets and income statements greater than that of some nation states, and w/ their own global foreign policies – have vested interests in election outcomes as well.  Needless to say, these foreign government & US multinational interests do not always align w/ the economic, fiscal, and foreign policy interests of the nation as a whole.  

The Saudis, and oil rich gulf monarchy states, profited immensely by Iraq & Iran oil sanctions, and the subsequent Iraq war... as oil production from the two sanctioned nations, for the most part, was taken off world markets.  Big Oil multinationals w/in the United States, along w/ defense contractors, and Wall Street banks also profited immensely from our continued martial involvement w/in the Middle East, the protection of Middle East oil assets, and the debt raised to support endless credit card wars.

There are limits to a "pay to play foreign policy", where US leadership (from both political parties) have allowed foreign governments to, arguably, utilize US military forces - as their proxy in the Middle East - to further their interests, as well as, enhance foreign & US multinationals’ bottom lines.

In a global economy... economic, foreign, and trade policy are inextricably linked.  Statecraft is a great deal like playing three-dimensional chess.  While the Trump Administration - which has recently shuffled its personnel, so that cabinet and staff members are more closely aligned w/ Trump’s thinking - appears to be playing a one-off game of checkers.  That is to say, everybody in this administration appears to be advancing their own private interests, at the expense of the nation, and thinking little about the consequences - intended or unintended – created by their actions.

Let's connect the dots.  Team Trump meets w/ the emissaries from some of the most horrific dictatorships on the planet on 2016 election eve (the usual suspects responsible for the spread of fundamentalist Islam & terrorism: Saudi Arabia and the UAE, w/ possible Qatar representation as well).  Shortly after the election, in his first foreign trip, Trump leads a US multinational junket to Saudi Arabia where deals & memorandums of understanding - worth hundreds of billions of dollars - are inked.  And we learn w/in the last week from Bloomberg that the President's son-in-law has an apparent conflict of interest, w/ indirect financing from Saudi Arabia/UAE, for one of Mr. Kushner's start up companies, Cadre.

And the quo for the quid…  POTUS Trump - who campaigned & promised to end Middle East involvement & failed nation building w/in the region - has kept the US military deeply imbedded in Middle East affairs (along w/ a continued role in Syria).  The administration continues to back the Saudis and their war crimes in Yemen with hardware & military support.  The President’s State Department has agreed to sell a billion in weapons systems to the Saudis.  And most recently, Mr. Trump tore up the Iranian nuclear agreement, which threatens to pull, daily, a million or more barrels of oil offline (at a time the global economy is humming and oil prices have been relatively subdued).

The Congress, per the usual, abdicates its responsibility to declare and govern war, and continues to allow Trump to conduct the aforementioned military operations under the auspices of the 9-11 AUMF.  Nearly two decades, post 9-11, the US is still running around the world fighting the same war, ostensibly a war on terror (with the terrorists, often, financed & funded by our so-called allies, the oil rich gulf monarchies). 

And, per the NY Times, a representative of the greatest sponsors of radical Islamic terror met in Trump Tower, with Donald Jr. - leading up to the 2016 election - to offer up their support. 

How very kind.

As for the intended consequences of POTUS' action - in tearing up the Iranian deal - well the price of oil predictably spiked.  This made Mr. Trump's oil monarchy benefactors, and US Big Oil concerns, very happy.  MIC stock too, received a boost on word of the announcement.  Wall St. banks had little to say, knowing that they would continue to cash-in on the prospects of additional debt issued to finance yet another possible war/regime change in the Middle East.

But someone appears to have forgotten to tell the POTUS of the unintended consequences of his actions. 

Namely:

Nearly every US recession - from the 70s forward - was proceeded by, or accompanied by, an oil price shock; many of these recessions were also accompanied by the Federal Reserve raising interest rates - after a period of accommodative monetary policy; the increase in the price of oil, per an economist writing in Project Syndicate, has already eliminated the paltry benefits of the Trump tax cuts for many Americans; the country's public and private sectors are up to their eyeballs in debt (as are many nations around the globe) – therefore, a recession would not be a good thing for the ability to service catastrophic debt loads; as reported in Bloomberg last week, derivative products - such as CLOs - are all the rage again (these derivative instruments were among the factors that set off the 2008 Financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession); and finally, a recession before the 2018 midterms, or 2020 general election, would greatly diminish POTUS Trump's chances at reelection (not to mention possibly throw the House to the Dems, some of whom want to nail the President over the aforementioned election interference allegations).

Which might explain why the POTUS has told his friends at OPEC (the Saudis, et al.) to ramp up production.

  

Unfortunately, US foreign policy has been conducted with myopic thinking for many years, largely driven by powerful multinational commercial interests.  The results are credit card wars that have bankrupted the nation, failed nation building, global instability, and failed nation states.  Many Middle East citizens hate the United States, not due to religion, but because - hypocritically - we continue to back some of the nastiest dictatorships on the planet, who simply crush and oppress their citizenry.  These are the limits of a US foreign policy conducted on a pay to play basis, on a transactional basis.  A US foreign policy conducted w/out morals - or any historical perspective, or desire to clean up and address real problems - will continue to yield these results.

What did Saudi Arabia do in the face of Western condemnation over beheadings, jailing human rights protestors w/out due process, beatings, and treating women like chattel?  Despite the MBS world tour touting reforms, the Saudi regime didn't clean up its act, but instead - as reported by Amnesty International - they hired a public relations firm.  

A PR firm - plus assorted K Street lobbyist - and suddenly Washington leadership averts its eyes, and its business as usual.

On this Memorial Day weekend, perhaps the most repulsive thing of all - w/in the sea of sordidness we call US foreign policy - is the lip service US political leadership gives our fighting women & men.  Yet, despite campaign promises to bring our soldiers home, the wars continue unabated.  The US, and the West, continues to back and support terrorist states & dictatorships - whose hands are stained w/ the blood of our American heroes.  And the United States still continues to conduct pay to play foreign policy that places our fighting women and men in harms way for no good reason.  

Instead of real FP reforms, the US is treated to the spectacle of the NFL banning the First Amendment on the football field, as players take a knee to peacefully protest the killing of innocent blacks (NFL ownership action is at the instigation of a POTUS, who sadly, has manipulated silent black protest into a lack of support for US troops).  Arguably, the plight of minorities in this country, and the misuse of our fighting women & men, are the opposite sides of the same coin: a predatory elite abusing & dividing US citizenry for personal gain.

As a result of our pay to play foreign policy, some children will never know their mothers or fathers, who paid the ultimate price... so that Lockheed Martin can receive a bump in their stock price, or so that the Saudis can keep their terror kingdom afloat for another year (by selling an energy product that is both deadly and obsolete).

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2018